


In Sunlight Strong and Golden, And Starlight Slight and Silver

by YumeArashi



Series: Haven werewolf 'verse [2]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Duke gets all the hugs, Duke needs all the hugs, Eventual Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, No Troubles, Past Domestic Abuse, References to Past Child Abuse, Threesome - F/M/M, Werewolves, occasional unhealthy coping with emotional trauma, past emotional trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-16 18:33:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 57,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10577094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeArashi/pseuds/YumeArashi
Summary: Scenes from the werewolf 'verse - domestic bliss, cases from the Three Gulls detective agency, and Haven living up to its name





	1. Moving day

**Author's Note:**

> The reason this has been so long in the works is that I had grandiose plans for a whole trilogy in this 'verse. I wanted to write about the Three Gulls Detective Agency's foundation and cases against a backdrop of Simon's misdeeds catching up to Duke, and about how - as the detective agency and the three of them made a name for themselves - supernatural beings would increasingly be drawn to Haven because with the gulls there the town would live up to its name, and become an integrated community of supernaturals and humans.
> 
> Unfortunately, the whole thing ultimately proved to be too ambitious. But I still wrote tens of thousands of words for it before I accepted that i was just out of my depth, so I plan to polish these up and post them as little windows into the lives of our beloved gulls. I hope you all enjoy these scenes from the werewolf verse, and thanks for bearing with me.

The weeks after the Haven Murders were officially declared ‘case closed’ were a welcome breath of peace.  Thanks to Nathan and Audrey’s attentive care – and their refusal to let Duke out of bed prematurely despite his protestations that he was perfectly fine – Duke’s healing progressed without complication.  Nathan went back to his regular duties of small-town police chief.  Audrey spent a lot of time on the phone and internet, making arrangements to found the Three Gulls Detective Agency.

A week after the memorial for the victims Audrey pushed aside her plate after supper and said, “I’ve turned in my notice at the Bureau, but there are some things I need to take care of in person, so I’ll need to head back to DC.”

Duke’s face fell and Nathan looked disappointed, but neither of them objected.

Audrey smiled.  “If I’m going back to DC, I may as well clean out the apartment.  The lease won’t be up until next winter but I can keep renting it furnished until then, and if I’m going to do that and then let the place go, I’d like to clear out any of the personal belongings that I don’t keep with me when I travel.  I thought that the three of us could make a road trip out of it.”

“Yeah?” Duke perked back up.  “That sounds fun.”

Nathan nodded.  “I can’t imagine anyone at the station will begrudge me taking a week off – pretty much everyone else has by now, we all needed it.”

“I’ll have to give Tracy a raise and make her official manager, she’s been running the Gull for weeks,” Duke grinned sheepishly.  “Hopefully she won’t mind one more week.”

“She coordinated meal delivery for you for weeks when you were laid up, can’t imagine she’d begrudge you a week off,” Nathan pointed out.

“Especially since you aren’t supposed to be back at work just yet,” Audrey pointed out.

“I could totally go back to work,” Duke grumbled resignedly.  He knew by now that they weren’t giving an inch.  But he didn’t truly begrudge it – for all he chafed at the confinement, it meant they cared about him, and knowing that never failed to make him happy.

“You know,” he ventured.  We could take the Rouge down.  If you’re gonna be moving your stuff in here, easier to do it directly than haul it two days up the coast.  Assuming you did plan to, I mean.  If you decide to get an apartment instead I understand.”

“Why would I want an apartment when I can have my boys?” she smiled.  “Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve said it yet, but thank you for making us welcome.  It’s incredibly generous of you to open up your home to us, even if it did start out as just bodyguard duty.”

Duke actually blushed a little, which Nathan found fascinating.  He hadn’t seen Duke blush since grade school.

“It was the least I could do,” Duke mumbled.  “You were protecting and later nursing me.  I should be thanking you.”

Nathan rolled his eyes.  “Call it even, then, since giving us room and board all this time is nothing to sneeze at.  Which reminds me.”  He looked suddenly hesitant.  “The lease on my place is up in a couple months.  Most of my stuff’s here by now – least the stuff I care about.  Figure there’s no sense keeping it, seems a pointless expense.  If I’m welcome here, that is.”

Duke grinned and wrapped an arm around Nathan’s shoulders, giving him a gentle noogie.  It was tempting to tease, but he knew how uncertain Nathan was feeling.  “Of course you are.  Wouldn’t be the same without you.”

“Well.  All right, then,” Nathan was visibly relieved.  “I’ll start stopping by my place after work, packing up whatever’s left and bringing over whatever I can fit in the Bronco.  Shouldn’t take too many trips.”

“I can help with that,” Audrey agreed.  “I’m practically a pro at packing by this point.”

“I’ll hire some guys to clean out a few of the cabins I’ve been using as storage,” Duke offered.  “You two should have your own space, even if you never end up using it.”

“That’s really thoughtful,” Audrey smiled.  “It probably is a good idea, then we at least have the option to have some privacy.”

“What is this ‘privacy’ you speak of?” Duke grinned, though there was a rueful edge to his humor.

Nathan looked awkwardly apologetic.  Audrey, however, looked thoughtful.  “Since werewolves’ clothes don’t change with them, are there werewolf packs that are basically just nudists?  I imagine that would be annoying for wolves who change back and forth fairly frequently.”

Nathan sputtered, a mortified blush crawling across his cheekbones.  Duke grinned at him, liking the look.  “Yeah, actually.  Some wolves choose to live in remote areas where they can change back and forth all the time without worrying about who might see, and some of those really do just run around without clothes.  Honestly, I can see why.  I do it myself sometimes when the Rouge is out to sea, even without shifting.  Sun and sea breeze feels nice.”

“Duke!” Nathan blurted, outraged, making Audrey laugh.  His blush was practically up to his hairline.

Audrey wondered if there was more to it than just embarrassment.

Duke, deciding to spare Nathan, turned to Audrey.  “Let me know when you want to be down there and I’ll work out our departure date and get everything ready.

“Sounds good.  If the agency takes off then we can do the great American road trip some other time,” Audrey agreed.

“Could do it heading back from some case in the heartland, if one comes up,” Nathan mused. 

Duke smirked.  “If we do that we should rent something comfier than the Bronco.”

Nathan gave him a betrayed look.

“Duke, stop teasing Nathan,” Audrey chuckled.  “We can take the Bronco if he likes.”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way,” Duke admitted.

**

It was interesting, Duke thought as he helped pack up Audrey’s apartment, how similar it was in some ways to Nathan’s.  Granted, he hadn’t seen Nathan’s place until most of his stuff was moved over to the Gull, but Nathan hadn’t brought that much, so the apartment must have been spartan before he’d started.  It had the bare minimum of furniture – a bed and one small dresser, a tiny kitchen table with one chair, a computer desk and a ratty old armchair in front of the TV.  Nothing adorned the walls and the ‘kitchen’ was an alcove with just enough space for a fridge, sink, and microwave.  It was clearly the home of a man who didn’t spend much time there, which wasn’t news to Duke.  Ordinarily the job of Haven’s chief of police was hardly that demanding, but Nathan liked to spend his days making the rounds of the little town, talking to people, stopping in stores, and generally getting to know folks and making sure that all was well. 

Audrey’s apartment was nicer, but just as impersonal.  That also wasn’t surprising, given that she didn’t even live there most of the time, and had a string of temporary renters living there when she was away.  Most of what she owned there was the sort of anonymous possessions that one wouldn’t mind strangers having access to, but she did have a locked closet containing the things that were impractical to carry around but too personal for her tenants.  Its contents were all they were bringing back – the rest of her possessions there were either left for the tenants’ use or discarded as being unnecessary duplicates of things Duke already owned. 

All in all, cleaning out the apartment took barely a few hours, and everything fit in the Bronco even with the three of them.  Audrey took a look around at the end, the apartment now as blank as a hotel suite.

“Sad?” Nathan asked.

“Not really,” Audrey admitted.  “I’m pretty sure there are some hotel rooms I’ve spent more time in than this place.  The Rouge is my home now.”

Duke smiled brightly at that.  “Thanks, Audrey.  That makes me really happy,” he admitted.

“I should be thanking you, but let’s not have that whole argument again,” she grinned.  “Come on, I spent enough time here to know some really good restaurants.  Let’s get dinner.”

**

Back on board after dinner, Nathan and Duke helped Audrey unpack her things.  As Duke had promised, the cabins to either side of Duke’s were their rooms – he’d even gotten interconnecting doors installed.  Those doors stood open almost all the time, and the boundaries were distinctly indistinct.  Possessions tended to wander from room to room, and all three of them still slept in Duke’s bed.  It felt strange not to, now.

“You know, there’s something I probably should have mentioned when our little private eye concept was still in planning stages,” Duke said hesitantly, keeping his attention focused on the box he was unpacking.

“Lay it on us,” Audrey smiled reassuringly.

“We’ll work it out,” Nathan nodded.

Duke appreciated the reassurance, but wasn’t quite sure yet if it was merited.  “It’s just…if we’re running around working with supernatural communities, and we meet a lone wolf, someone who’s struggling the way I was…I couldn’t turn my back on them, you know?   I’m gonna help them, I’m gonna  _ need _ to.  I don’t necessarily mean make them a part of our pack, but I’m going to help them find a pack to be part of - a good, healthy, loving pack.  I’m not leaving anyone else to live with what I went through.  I couldn’t.  That’s just…non-negotiable,” he told them, looking anxious as he awaited their response.

Needlessly so, as it turned out.  “You mean  _ we’re _ going to help them,” Audrey smiled.

“It’s important to you, it’s important to us.  That’s non-negotiable,” Nathan agreed. 

Duke looked at them a moment, swallowing around a lump in his throat.  They hadn’t hesitated, not even for one second.  It was as if what he wanted, what he needed, was just…a  _ given _ .  As if there had never been any question that they would agree.  He couldn’t even wrap his mind around that.

Seeing Duke’s stunned look, Audrey came over and sat with him, putting an arm around his shoulders.  “That’s what pack is for, right?  Supporting and taking care of each other.”

“Yeah, it’s…I mean, you’re right, but…”

“You need time,” Nathan said simply, coming over to sit with them. 

“It’s okay if you’re not used to the idea,” Audrey took his hand in hers.  “It’s not something you’ve had before, we understand.”

Nathan nodded.  “We’ll keep saying it until it sinks in.  If it matters to you, it matters to us.”

“Maybe I didn’t even need to ask,” Duke smiled wryly.  “You did it for me, after all.  That’s just how you are.”

“Wouldn’t have done it for just anyone,” Nathan disagreed, nudging Duke with his shoulder.

“I’m touched, Wuornos,” Duke told him, only half-joking. He added more softly, “Thanks, guys. Not just for agreeing, for understanding how important this is to me, for understanding why it’s so important.  It means the world to me.”

“And you mean the world to us,” Audrey smiled and kissed his cheek.


	2. Therapy

It was fair to say that Duke Crocker was not a fan of therapy.  In fact, when Audrey had first raised the gentle suggestion, he’d flat out refused.  She hadn’t pressed the issue, but he’d felt guilty.  She looked so disappointed, and so worried, and she’d turned his whole world around.  So he’d promised to try.

Audrey and Nathan had offered to come with him for moral support, but he’d declined.  He’d lurked outside the office until no one was around, not wanting to be seeing going in.  Even so, he dragged his heels about actually going in, lurking outside the door until it opened and a pretty but no-nonsense redhead looked out.  “Duke Crocker, I presume.  Claire Callahan.  Come on it.”

Her office was simply but comfortably furnished, and he thought resentfully that it was to lull people into getting comfortable enough to reveal their darkest secrets.  He opted not to take a seat, slouching with his hands in his pockets.  “Look, I’m gonna be straight with you.  I’m here as a favor to someone.  I think therapy is bullshit, I don’t intend to tell you anything private, and I really, really don’t want to be here.”

“Well then, let me be equally straight,” she told him crisply.  “There’s the door.  With an attitude like that, all the therapy in the world isn’t going to do you any good.  But I’ll tell you this, the people who are most against getting therapy are usually the ones who need it most.  So you can either ditch the attitude and help me help you, or you can walk away and not waste either of our time.”

Duke blinked.  “Huh.  I think I actually could like you.”

“Glad to hear it,” Claire smiled, and her smile was genuine.

“I’m not agreeing to anything yet,” Duke said cautiously, “But I’m willing to listen.  Why should I do this, and what makes you think you can help?”

“Fair questions.  Let me start by giving you a little background on me.  I became aware of the supernatural as a child, when I got lost in a forest and a dryad helped me.  Of course everyone said I must have imagined it, but I knew what I’d seen, and I went looking for more information.  As I became more involved in the supernatural world, I began to see a lot of the conflicts of human and supernatural interaction.  Supernatural victims of human persecution and human victims of supernatural violence alike were left traumatized and without recourse.  There were no mental health resources among the supernatural community, and humans who encountered the supernatural were left confused, unable to tell anyone what had truly happened, struggling with a suddenly uncertain reality along with whatever trauma the event had incurred.  I’d always had an interest in clinical psychology, so I decided to fill that niche.  I freely admit that I’m a bit of a pioneer, but I have over fifteen years of working with both human and supernatural clients.  Most of the time it’s PTSD or other psychological traumas, but I have to be a little of a jack of all trades, especially where supernaturals in need of therapy are concerned.  And of course I have to be familiar with supernatural races and cultures, since sociology and psychology intersect so heavily.  So there’s my qualifications.  So far so good?”

Duke nodded.  “I suppose it’s good that someone’s out there doing what you do, even if I’m still not convinced I need help.”

“It’s a rare person that doesn’t need help.  I understand you heard about me through Dr. Carr, but she didn’t tell me anything about you.  Would you be willing to tell me why the person to whom you’re doing this favor thinks you would benefit from talking to me?”

Duke bit down on his impulse to instantly refuse.  He should at least try.  And yet, talking about Wade wasn’t something he was ready to do.  Might never be ready to do, in fact.

“That’s fine,” Claire told him, seeing his hesitation.  “It’s understandable if you’re not comfortable with that just yet.  We have only just met, after all.”

“I thought the whole point was to talk about it.”

“We’ll get there,” she said confidently.  “Healing can’t be rushed.”

Duke grinned.  “It can if you’re me.”

Claire smiled.  “Maybe that’s a better place to start.  Do you mind telling me what race you are?  In confidentiality, of course – everything you say in this room will be.  Even from the person for whom you’re doing this.”

Duke felt like a coward at the relief that reminder gave him.  He shouldn’t be keeping secrets from his pack, he didn’t _want_ to keep secrets from his pack, but if his ugliest secrets and rawest emotion ended up on display…he wasn’t sure he wanted them to see that.

This question, though, seemed safe enough.  “Werewolf.”

“A good start,” she nodded encouragingly.  “Are you comfortable telling me about your pack?”

Duke smiled.  That he could do.  “Always.”

**

Audrey was pacing on deck when he got back, and hurried worriedly over to him.  “How did it go?  Are you okay?  Did you get along with her?  Did she help?”

“I’m fine,” Duke hugged her, hoping to soothe her restless anxiety.  “Honestly it went better than I thought.  I pretty much figured the whole thing was bullshit, but she seems cool.  We didn’t exactly get into the heavy stuff, but she said that was fine for a first session.  Mostly this was just me talking about you guys and the Gull and the Rouge – getting the exposition out of the way, I guess.  I still don’t know if she can help, but I’m willing to try.”

Audrey hugged him fiercely tight.  “That’s all I ask.”


	3. Lunch break

Even though the police harassment had stopped, Duke still tended to avoid anything associated with them – a police uniform made him vanish from sight, a patrol car made him tense, and he stayed well away from the station.  Nathan and Audrey understood this, and never asked more of him than he was willing to give.

And yet, he was currently contemplating a trip to the station.  Audrey had gone down there to help look over some cold cases with Nathan, and they had, unsurprisingly, gotten too entirely absorbed in them.  He’d texted them a couple of times and they’d assured him they’d break for lunch soon, but now it was after 3 pm.  With a sigh, he packed up some sandwiches and headed out.

It was strange, and very uncomfortable, to be walking into the station freely and of his own will.  He could do this, he told himself.  He had every right to be here.

Stan was at the front desk, and looked surprised but gave him a smile.  “Hey, Duke.  Here to see Nathan and Audrey?”  Duke nodded, trying to smile in return.  “Head on back to the chief’s office, you know the way.”

Duke certainly did.  He walked tensely through the bullpen, irrationally expecting angry shouts to be directed his way any second.  But nothing more than a few startled looks were directed his way, and it was with relief that he slipped into the police chief’s office and shut the door behind him.

Audrey and Nathan stared at him in shock for a moment.  Duke grinned stiffly and held up the bag he carried.  “You guys missed lunch.”

Audrey was on her feet in a moment, crossing the room to give him a hug.  “Duke, that’s so sweet, you didn’t need to come here,” she said, sounding guilty.

“The day’s nice, why don’t we eat outside?” Nathan suggested, resting his hand on Duke’s back, rubbing soothingly.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Duke admitted, a little ashamed of how much he needed to get out of there.

“I promise next time you say it’s time for lunch, we’ll listen.” Audrey promised.

“Don’t worry about it,” Duke shook his head.  “This is where Nathan works, and I know that it won’t be a big deal if I come here.  It’s time I got over it.”

“You don’t have to force yourself,” Nathan frowned.

Audrey nodded.  “You can’t just flip the off switch on something like this.  You had a lifetime to build those associations, they aren’t going to go away overnight.  Or just because you decide it’s time.  You’ll only hurt yourself if you try to force things.”

“And we’re not a fan of you getting hurt,” Nathan agreed, wrapping his arms around them both.

Duke closed his eyes and leaned into them.  “Well, you’re already starting to give me some better memories of this place,” he joked weakly.

Audrey smiled and kissed his cheek.  “Glad we could make a start on it.  Now come on, let’s go sit in the park and enjoy your wonderful lunch.”


	4. Full moon - safe room

When the first full moon after the confrontation with Wade was approaching, Audrey hesitantly asked Duke, “I thought, if you’re comfortable, the three of us can talk about next Thursday.”

Duke didn’t need to ask what she meant.  “What about it?”

“You don’t need the safe room anymore,” Nathan reminded him.  “You were perfectly in control last month.  You have a pack now.”

“Yeah, okay, see that works in theory.  But maybe that was just the crisis.  I was so worried about you, so focused on you, that it anchored me.  What if I can’t do that again this month?  And before you say it, I appreciate that you have faith in me, I really do, but faith won’t protect you if things go bad.  I still need the safe room.  I know you hate it, I’m sorry, but I cannot and will not risk hurting you.”

“No blame to you there,” Nathan agreed.

Audrey looked thoughtful.  “If you change, and you’re in control, you’ll stay that way, right?  Either you are or you aren’t, and you don’t know for sure until the change?”

Duke nodded.  “There are feral wolves and there are werewolves in control, there’s really no middle ground or switching.  That’s what made your ability to call me back so remarkable.  That myth is the only time I’ve ever even heard of a feral wolf regaining control.  The only thing I can think if that would turn me feral in the middle of the full moon is…well, I don’t even want to say it.  Suffice to say it’s a moot point since that would only happen literally over my dead body.”

_Losing us,_ Audrey thought.  She didn’t say it either.  If werewolves could be real, who was to say that death omens might not be also?

“So you change in the safe room, and if you’re feral we wait it out and if not we can let you out,” Nathan abruptly changed the subject.  It seemed as if Duke’s meaning had not been lost on him either.

“That’ll work,” Audrey agreed cheerfully

“Well…okay.  But this plan has to be absolutely failproof, with redundancies and safeguards in triplicate,” Duke agreed reluctantly.

Audrey put a hand over his.  “You don’t have to.”

Duke shook his head.  “There’s no reason not to.  Nate’s right, it’s a perfectly reasonable solution.  And I can’t just keep going in there every month if I’m really not feral anymore.  That’s dumb, for one, and for another it bothers you.  I need to suck it up and get over it.”  He caught himself – he and Claire had been working on healthy vs unhealthy coping mechanisms.  “Scratch that, let me rephrase.  There’s a difference between healthy caution and paranoia, and to avoid falling into the latter I need to start working on accepting that things are different now.  Setting this up in a safe and controllable way is a good way to do that.”

“We’ll work it out,” Nathan reassured him.

“And keep going over it until we have a plan you’re okay with,” Audrey agreed.

Duke took a deep breath and nodded.  He could do this.

**

When the night of the full moon came Duke was still clearly uneasy about the idea, but still determined to go through with it.  “Okay, so we’re going to wait half an hour after I go in.  Moonrise is in ten minutes and the remaining twenty should be ample time for the Change to complete.  When the time is up you can crack the door open – _just_ a crack.  It opens inward for extra security, so if you start to open it and I attack the door, you pull it the hell shut and do NOT open it until dawn, no matter what.  If you get in there and something goes wrong and you need to get out before I’ve changed back, the code is 6172.  Use it if everything goes to hell, or even if you have the faintest suspicion that everything’s _about_ to go to hell – I don’t want to get out but I want to hurt you two even less, so if you can get to safety then do that first and then worry about who else I might hurt.”

They’d been over all this before, more than once in fact, and Duke had freely admitted that the idea of even a feral wolf turning on his own pack was unthinkable.  But neither of them pointed that out.  Duke needed this, needed to remind himself that there were measures in place to keep them safe, and they understood that.

“We understand,” Nathan nodded.

“We’ll be okay.  So will you,” Audrey reassured him.

Duke pulled them close in a brief embrace before letting go and starting to pull off his clothes.  It didn’t escape Audrey that he looked as if he dreaded every second of what was coming, and she once again determined to help him change that.

The door closed with a heavy, ominously final-sounding thud.  It silenced the sounds of the Change, and while Audrey and Nathan were glad not to hear the cracks of bone and cries of pain, they knew Duke was still suffering.  It was hard to wait the promised half hour when they were so sure Duke would be fine – they wanted to be with him, comfort him, help him through it.

Once the time was up, they eased the door open a cautious crack.  Nothing happened, so they slowly swung it the rest of the way open, stepping inside quickly and shutting it behind them.

Duke lay curled up with his head down on his paws in a deliberately unthreatening pose.  It was the first time they’d seen him properly as a wolf, in good lighting while he was healthy and whole.  He was truly impressive, the size of a pony and heavily muscled, with a broad chest, thick legs, and powerful hindquarters.  His tail was beautifully plumy and his coat thick and coarse.  His claws were thick and blunt but long enough to still do serious harm, given the force he could put behind them.  His head was beautiful, his expression intelligent and expressive.  His mouth was firmly closed but the size of the fangs must have been terrifying.

“There you are, Duke,” Audrey smiled.

He rose to his feet hesitantly, head and tail held low and ears cocked at an angle that suggested shame.  The tiny room was barely big enough for him to stand normally.

Audrey sat on the floor and coaxed him to sit beside her, scratching behind his ears, her small hands finding the soft wooly undercoat beneath the outer hairs.  Duke’s eyes closed in pleasure as he settled down beside her.

Nathan wondered if Duke was still fully himself, or if it was merely that the wolf recognized them, as it had when they’d first seen it.  He sat beside them and gave Duke a smirk.  “You know, when I was a kid I always did want a dog.”

There was no mistaking the look Duke gave him.  He lowered his head and gently but irresistibly butted Nathan in the chest, and Nathan found himself bowled over onto his back on the floor, pinned under the wolf’s massive bulk as Duke chuffed a canine laugh.  Yeah, that was him in there, all right.

Audrey laughed.  “Come on, he deserved that but you don’t really want to squish him.”

Duke sighed and rolled off, only to be used as a mattress himself by Audrey.  He looked at her over the shoulder with an expression that clearly said ‘hypocrite’.

“What?  You’re really comfy,” Audrey grinned and patted his shoulder.  “So soft and warm and fluffy.  Like a big snuggly teddybear.”

Duke gave Nathan a long-suffering look.

Nathan smirked.  “Don’t look at me, I pretty much agree.  And it’s not as if her weight is a problem.  I’m betting you barely notice.”

Duke made a noise that probably indicated agreement, since he wasn’t actually trying to dislodge Audrey.

“You know,” Audrey said gently, running her fingers through Duke’s fur, “It’s looks like you’re perfectly safe to come upstairs.  Do you want to try?”

Duke hesitated, but shook his head.

“Too much too soon?” Nathan asked.  “Rather make sure you can get through a whole full moon without losing control and then try next month?”

Duke nodded, looking relieved that they weren’t about to press the issue.

“Fair enough,” Audrey smiled at him.  “I vote we get comfy and watch movies on my laptop, maybe have some snacks later,” Audrey got up off of Duke, letting him nose around in the blankets and pillows until he’d made a comfortable nest.

After Duke had insisted on still needing the safe room, Audrey had insisted on making some improvements.  A couple layers of old couch cushions now covered the floor, and assorted small pillows and blankets were scattered around.  Old flannel sheets had been glued up to cover both the sight and the chill of the gouged metal walls and heavy door.  There was nothing she could do about the size of the place, about the lack of windows or heat, but she’d done her best to make it more like a cozy reading nook instead of a prison cell.

At least the lack of heat wouldn’t be a problem, she mused as she stretched out on top of Duke once more – his huge furry bulk was as good as any space heater.  He looked back and gave her a nuzzle, seeming amused by her impertinence.  If he realized that she was doing it as much to save space as to tease him, or that more importantly she wanted him to know how much she trusted him – wanted to prove how worthy of that trust he was – he gave no sign.

Nathan loaded a movie onto the laptop and settled down against Duke’s broad chest, folding his long limbs like a jackknife.

After the first movie, Nathan slipped out to get snacks – carefully selected to make sure there was nothing that would be awkward for Duke to eat in this form – and when they all settled down again they pulled blankets over themselves.  Duke was starting to look faintly apologetic when Nathan fit himself into the limited space once more, but Nathan shook his head.  “I like this.  It’s cozy.”

Duke gave him an affectionate nudge with his nose, seeming grateful, and Nathan ruffled the wolf’s ears as he loaded the next movie.

**

Audrey and Nathan drifted to sleep before the third movie was over.  Duke carefully tugged the blankets a little higher and settled in to watch over them.  He could still feel the call of the moon, urging him to run wild, but it was not like before.  Now he wanted to run with Audrey and Nathan, wanted to go find some untouched wilderness and race and play and howl with his pack.  And the urge to run wild was nowhere near as strong as the urge to watch over his pack, to protect them while they slept.

He rested his head on his paws, content.

**

He woke them a little before moonset, when he could feel the Change coming.

Audrey knelt by his head.  “We know you’re safe now.  Will you let us stay while you Change?”

“We want to help you.  Want to be there for you,” Nathan agreed.

Duke looked around anxiously.  The room was too small – in his thrashing, he could hurt them without ever meaning to.  He got up and padded out into the wide hallway, lying down on the cold metal and looked at them anxiously, as if to convey his thoughts.

Luckily, Audrey and Nathan weren’t detectives for nothing.  “You need space so you don’t accidentally hurt us,” Nathan realized, and Duke nodded in relief.

“I can see how the Change would go badly in there,” Audrey grimaced, remembering Duke’s wild flailing in the moonlight and thinking how much he must have hurt himself every month.  She really, really hoped that they could talk him into staying out next month.

Duke lay quietly now that he’d gotten his message across, and they could see him brace for the pain.  Audrey knelt by his head, stroking his soft ears.  “We’re here, Duke, we’re right here with you.  You’re not alone.”

Nathan crouched by his back, running his hands over the coarse fur, reassuring Duke that he was there as well.  “Don’t worry about us, we’ll get clear if you start thrashing.”

Duke gave him a grateful look and a soft whine that abruptly rose in pitch and cut off, the lupine body stiffening and arching, the huge paws scrabbling at the metal.  But he pressed himself against Audrey and Nathan’s hands as if their touch was a lifeline.

The Change was no less gruesome this time, but they kept their voices steady and soothing, their hands gently stroking fur that receded into bare skin.  They bundled him into the blankets as he lay panting, wrapping him up warmly before he could even begin to shiver.

They helped him upstairs and installed him at the kitchen table.  They’d talked him into starting a hearty stew in the crockpot before nightfall, and Audrey served him a generous portion.  He seemed to be doing better this time, less lethargic and disoriented, moving less like he was in lingering pain.  He was much more alert and ate his stew with a good appetite, instead of needing to be coaxed.  Afterward he reassured them he’d be fine in the shower, and that they should go ahead and get into bed and he’d join them shortly.  It didn’t keep them from listening keenly for any thuds that might indicate a fall, but they allowed him his privacy.

He came in in clean sleepwear and settled into his accustomed place between them, putting an arm around each of them and drawing them close.  “This was so, so much better than the past, you guys have no idea,” he said softly.

“We’re glad,” Nathan said honestly.

“Very glad,” Audrey agreed, kissing Duke’s forehead.    


	5. Inheritance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: emptying the home of a deceased loved one, grief, mourning, letting go, emotional manipulation

Duke hesitated in the doorway, watching Audrey and Nathan.  Ostensibly they were watching a movie, but actually they were having a popcorn fight.  Both of them were laughing, and it was nice to see Audrey so relaxed and carefree, to see Nathan so happy and expressive.

But watching his pack that wasn’t the reason Duke was hesitating, however enjoyable it might be.  He knew that when he walked in the room they’d turn to him with smiles, welcoming and glad to see him.  It wasn’t that he doubted their reactions.  They had told him so often that whatever he needed they would give him, and he trusted them.  But it was one thing to know that he need only ask, and another to actually do it.

He knew there was no good reason not to.  He knew that the voices in his head telling him otherwise – telling him to suck it up, to be strong, to not burden them – were bad lessons from bad people.  But they were lifelong lessons, not so easily shaken.

Well.  Sooner started, sooner done.

He stepped into the stateroom, smiling a little as they froze wide-eyed, then sheepishly scrambled to clean up.  He lent a hand, knowing it for the procrastination it was, trying to find words that would make this easier.  But he didn’t find any, and when they work was done and they invited him to join them on the couch, he decided to just bite the bullet.

“Actually, I wanted to…I mean, there’s something...” he stopped, took a breath, forced the words out.  “I need your help.”

“You’ve got it,” Nathan said immediately.

“Anything you need, Duke,” Audrey agreed, taking his hand.  “What’s going on?”

Duke breathed a sigh of relief.  He’d never doubted them, not really.  But he was glad to have the words out.  “I got a letter today from some lawyer out in Chicago.  It looks like Wade went AWOL from his normal life years ago.  He was…” he swallowed hard, and Audrey gently tugged him down onto the couch where they could put their arms around him.  “He was actually declared legally dead some time ago, before he ever came to Haven.  His estate was tied up in court, his ex-wife wanted everything even though they’d split well before he even ran off.  Greedy bitch.  And I guess they had some trouble finding me.  It said they were looking for any surviving relatives he had and…I’m all they came up with.”

“Duke, I’m so sorry,” Audrey murmured, stroking his hair.

“That’s rough,” Nathan agreed quietly, rubbing his back.

“It’s…I mean, it’s not exactly a surprise, you know?” Duke tried to pull together a smile.  “I’d have been more surprised if they did find anyone.  And given the family I had, maybe it’s better to have none.”

“You have us,” Nathan said loyally.  “We may not be family, but we’re here for you.”

Duke leaned against him, glad of the support.  “I have to go out and…his house is still the way he left it.  All his things…I can’t do it alone.  I know I should, it’s family business, but I can’t deal with this on my own.  I need you, I need your help.”  The admission was painful, his voice heavy with shame.

“No one should have to do that alone,” Nathan told him, remembering how devastating it had been to go through his father’s things in the days after the accident.

“Nathan’s right, there’s nothing shameful or weak in needing the support of your loved ones for something like this,” Audrey agreed.  “It was really brave of you to admit that, I know it can’t have been easy.”

“Really not,” Duke mumbled.  “I don’t usually need to say anything when I need you, you both understand me so well.  Hell, most of the time you know what I need before I do, and you’ve already given it to me by the time I understand.”

“I’m glad you can ask,” Audrey smoothed his hair back from his forehead and pressed a soft kiss there.  “We do our best but no one’s perfect, and I feel a lot better knowing that if there are times when we don’t realize what you need, you’re strong enough to ask for it.  We’d always, always rather you ask than bear it in silence.”

Nathan nodded.  “It’s a hard habit to break when you’re using to taking care of everything on your own, even without all that bullshit your old man fed you.  It’s really impressive that you’re able to break out of that mindset.  We’re proud of you.”

“I don’t deserve you,” Duke mumbled, hugging them close.

“You absolutely do,” Audrey said firmly.

“And even if you didn’t, we’d be here for you anyhow,” Nathan added.

**

Whatever career Wade Crocker had had before he’d abandoned his life, it must have paid very well – the house was huge and had been luxurious before all the years of his absence had left it with a gloomy air of neglect and abandonment.

“Looks like a haunted house,” Duke joked weakly.  He unlocked the door with shaking hands.  Inside a layer of dust was everywhere, covering a scene of ordinary domesticity – books left out with bookmarks still in them, fossilized dishes beside the sink.  Either Wade hadn’t planned to vanish, or he hadn’t cared enough to deal with such human minutiae.

Duke felt sick.  No one had come, no one had washed the dishes or covered the furniture or made any effort at all to keep the place livable in case Wade had come back.  His brother had been so alone, without a single friend or family member to hope he came back.  Not even Duke.

Nathan’s arms went around him, pulling him close.  His hand cradled the back of Duke’s head, drawing Duke’s face against the other man’s shoulder so he wouldn’t have to see.

Audrey’s hands rubbed his back soothingly.  “Why don’t we hire someone to clean this place up and come back when that’s done,” she suggested gently.  “We can’t accomplish anything when it looks like this, we’ll sneeze ourselves to death.”

“Yeah, okay,” Duke mumbled, allowing Nathan to coax him back out to the car while Audrey started making calls.  Maybe it would be better when it was clean and livable, as if Wade was just away for the weekend.

The impression wouldn’t last, not if they were going to empty the house, but he could pretend.  Just for a little bit.

**

Over the next couple of days Audrey and Nathan took Duke out to everything worth seeing in Chicago, trying to keep his mind off of the abandoned house and its contents awaiting his attention.  Duke appreciated that, did his best to throw himself into each activity, trying to forget at least for a while.

When they came back, the grounds were freshly landscaped and a new coat of paint was being applied to the outside.  Indoors the maid service had vanished every last speck of dust and cleaned the windows and kitchen and bathrooms.

“It does feel better,” Duke said quietly.  At least for now.  “You know, I might as well sell the place furnished.  I’m not going to want any of the furniture, so why bother hauling it out?”

If Audrey or Nathan realized that Duke just wanted to keep the place looking as normal as possible, they didn’t call him on it.  “We could add a clause in the paperwork that if they don’t plan to keep the furniture, it’ll be donated to charity,” she suggested.

“Or we could have a charity come pick it up after we’re done, so we don’t have to do it ourselves,” Nathan added.

“Yeah, either of those sound good,” Duke agreed.  He didn’t want to see the place empty, but he didn’t want Wade’s things thrown away, even if it was just furniture.  He looked around, wondering where to start.

“Why don’t we start in the bathroom.  Nothing sentimental in there,” Nathan proposed.

“Yeah, okay,” Duke said glad to have a place to start.

They opened up a trash bag for the half used toiletries and it was going well until they found Wade’s aftershave.  The familiar scent left Duke crying on the tiled floor, Audrey and Nathan wrapped around him offering comfort.

By common agreement, that was as much as Duke did that day.  With his permission Nathan stayed behind to finish emptying the bathroom while Audrey took Duke back to their hotel.

The bottle of aftershave went with him, securely tucked in Duke’s pocket.

**

The kitchen was easier – unlike Duke, Wade had apparently never had any interest in cooking.  The fridge held only some highly questionable condiments and the freezer was packed with ancient frozen dinners long past their expirations.  The cabinets held tableware but no cookware, and the pantry was full of more prepackaged food.  As they packed up what was still good for the soup kitchen and tossed the rest, Duke wished he could have made dinner for his brother at least once.  He’d visited with Wade briefly not long after leaving Haven, but it was before he’d learned to cook.  After he left they’d fallen out of touch, and he hadn’t seen his brother again until the night of Wade’s death.

He should have tried harder to stay in touch.

In the living room, the books and movies and CDs were packed up for Duke to bring home.  If Wade had liked them well enough to want to own them, Duke wanted to read every book and watch every film and listen to every album.  There wasn’t much in the way of décor, with little art on the walls and few knickknacks scattered about, but what there was Duke packed up as well.

The bedroom was the hardest.  The clothing was unremarkable – mostly an uninteresting assortment of suits, button down shirts, and bland ties with the occasional casual polo shirt and khakis.  But even after all these years they held a faint trace of Wade’s scent, and Duke knew that when they were given away or aired out, that last trace of his brother would be gone forever.  Audrey and Nathan didn’t object to those being packed up in the boxes bound for home, even though there was no practical reason for Duke to keep them.

On a shelf in the closet, they found a photo album.  Duke pulled it down and held it as carefully as if it were a priceless treasure – or a ticking bomb.  Audrey and Nathan coaxed him over to the bed, the three of them sitting down with Duke in the middle, securely wrapped in their arms.  Duke flipped through the pages backwards, starting with the last memorable events in Wade’s life – his wedding and honeymoon, apparently, years and years ago.  He flipped backwards through their courtship, through photos of Wade being congratulated at work for some award or another, through him hanging out with his colleagues.  Younger and younger, through promotions and girlfriends and friendships long since forgotten, through his college graduation and student years, to his high school graduation and beyond.  Duke began appearing in the photos, at first as a teenager with a cocky grin and a defensive hunch to his shoulders that was never quite hidden, down through the years until he was a small child, bruised and thin but adoring as he gazed up as his older brother.  The last photo in the album was Wade as a small child holding newborn Duke, careful and proud and grinning hugely.

Duke held the album to his chest, and cried.

**

The next day they went back to finish.  Almost everything was cleared out at this point, it was simply a matter of checking that nothing had been missed.  Duke especially wanted to check for hidden items – his brother might not have become a smuggler, but Duke had learned the habit of hiding his precious things long before adulthood and figured Wade had probably been the same way.

As it turned out, he was right.  A slit in the box spring at the head of the bed held a letter, addressed to Duke.  Duke started at his name on the envelope, sick with dread.  He didn’t want to read his brother’s last words to him.

“You don’t have to read it now,” Audrey offered.  “You could wait until we’re back home if that would help.”

It was tempting, Duke couldn’t deny.  Back on the Rouge, in the safety and familiarity of his own home, this would be easier.  The wolf in him wanted the comfort of den and pack for what was to come.  But the Cape Rouge was over a thousand miles to the east, and this couldn’t wait.

He opened the letter. 

> Duke,
> 
> There aren’t words for everything I’ve always wanted to tell you, but I don’t think I’ll be coming home again, so I need to try.
> 
> I can’t keep living like this.  Locking myself up, waking in a cell with no memory, forever caught between wanting pack and trying to be strong like Dad wanted.  I did okay for a while when I had a wife and friends – poor substitute for pack, but enough to quiet the wolf.  But I needed too much.  Humans aren’t meant for pack bonds, they don’t love the way we do.  We need a wolf pack or none at all.
> 
> There’s nothing left for me here.  I drove everyone away.  Lost my job.  I hate it here more every day.  The whole house, the whole town feels like a cage now.  I can’t stand on my own with this human life tying me down.  I have to be free.   Have to be what I am.  I know you’ll understand.  I know you feel it too.  It’s in our blood.
> 
> It was a hunter that killed our father, so I’ll start there.  I don’t know much, just that it was a vengeance thing and the guy has a hell of a reputation.  If I kill him, then I can leave humanity behind without regrets.  If he kills me…well, one day you’ll feel the way I do, and now you know where to start too.  Find this hunter and avenge us, Duke.  You owe your family that much, if nothing more.
> 
> I know I never did right by you, and I’m sorry for that.  I remember the bruises on your skin and the fear in your eyes.  You tried so hard for Dad but he was never happy.
> 
> He was wrong.  You were the best of all of us.
> 
> One day I’ll come for you, and we can be free together.
> 
> Love you, little brother
> 
> \- Wade

Duke didn’t know whether to cry, or be sick, or put his fist through the wall.  But he did none of those, a leaden blanket of exhaustion leaving him staring hollowly at the letter.  The last few days had wrung out his emotions until there was no room left for anger or grief.  He was distantly aware of Nathan and Audrey exchanging worried looks and he knew he should say something to reassure them, but he just wanted to get away from there and forget all of this.

As Audrey and Nathan coaxed him to his feet and out of the house, Duke shoved the letter in his pocket.  Later, he could deal with all of that later.

“We can come back tomorrow if you want to finish searching the place,” Audrey offered.

Duke shook his head.  “I’m done.  I just want to get the hell out of here.  For good.”

Nathan nodded.  “Won’t take long to get our things from the hotel, we can head right out after.”

“We’ll grab dinner on the road,” Audrey agreed.  “We can crash somewhere in Ohio or just push on through driving in shifts with one of us napping in the back.”

“Either’s fine by me,” Nathan shrugged.

“I’d really like to get home,” Duke said softly.  On some level he hated asking that of them, hated that he _needed_ to ask, that all he wanted to do was curl up in his own bed and sleep for days.  He hated being that weak.  But he was too tired to be strong, too tired to put on the casual act and pretend he was all right.

They would have seen through it anyway.

“Straight through it is, then,” Audrey nodded.

“Thanks,” Duke said quietly as he climbed into the back of the Bronco and curled up under one of the blankets Nathan always kept back there.  He closed his eyes and listened to Nathan and Audrey quietly debate dinner options as they drove.

This wasn’t home, but it was almost as good.  Nathan’s scent had been layered year after year into the truck’s interior and the feel of the fake leather seats was comfortingly familiar.  Nathan had probably spent as much time in the old vehicle as he ever had at his apartment, more home to him than those carelessly appointed rooms ever had been.  Nathan had lovingly restored it himself, after Wade had…

No.  He wasn’t going to think about Wade.  Not about his stupid, asinine quest for vengeance for a father who certainly didn’t deserve any.  Not about his failed marriage and vanished friends.  Not about him suffering the same shattering loneliness and lunar imprisonment Duke had known, being slowly driven to insanity by it.  Not about how freedom, to Wade, had meant the brutal slaughter of god only knew how many innocent people.  Not about the vicious legacy of murder and madness to which Wade had named him heir.  Not about how Wade had ended the letter, with love for his brother and regret that he hadn’t been able to keep Duke safe, his humanity shining through for possibly the last time.

Not about how Wade had kept his promise to come for him, and what that had meant for both of them.

He hadn’t realized he was crying until Audrey reclined her seat in order to reach over and stroke his cheek, gently brushing the tears away.  He leaned into the touch, wondering tiredly how he had any tears left by now.

They were stopped, he realized dimly, and Nathan wasn’t in the car.  Audrey must have seen him looking around, because she hastened to reassure him.  “Nathan’s getting our things and checking out.  Then we’re heading straight home.”

Duke nodded, covering her hand with his and giving it a grateful squeeze.

“Do you want me to come in back and sit with you?”

Ashamed, Duke shook his head.  “I’ll be okay,” he mumbled.  “Probably be asleep soon anyhow.  Just…maybe until then, you and Nate keep talking?  Helps to hear you.”

Audrey smiled and stretched back to kiss his forehead.  “Like we did that first night when we called you back, remember?  You said that just having us nearby would be enough, but I figured you’d feel better if you could hear us, if we kept in contact with you physically, too.”

“It did help.  Felt like pack even then,” Duke admitted, then was caught by surprise by a wide yawn. “Want you to read the letter,” he added softly.  “Not now.  When we’re home.  When I’ve rested.  You and Nate, you should know what it says.”

“Are you sure?” Audrey murmured, combing her fingers through his hair.  “You don’t have to share, I can imagine how private it must be.”

“Want you to,” Duke mumbled, her soothing touch quickly sinking him into sleep.

He didn’t hear her reply.

**

It was mid-morning by the time they pulled up to the Rouge, all three of them tired from the long drive.  Duke had woken at the second stop and insisted on taking his fair share of the driving, so he hadn’t slept any more than the other two, however much he’d needed it.  Still, he somehow found the energy to hurry up the gangplank, his things forgotten in the car in his haste.

Nathan shrugged and locked the Bronco with Wade’s things still inside, he and Audrey grabbing Duke’s luggage at least.  They followed Duke inside, watching him visibly relax at being back home.  “Bed,” Nathan instructed putting a hand on Duke’s back and steering him toward the bedrooms.

Duke made no objection, letting Nathan herd him to their room without protest.  He flopped face-first on the bed, as he’d done the night of that first full moon – though he did then crawl into it properly rather than making Nathan and Audrey arrange him.

Nathan kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed fully dressed, wrapping himself around Duke and watching Audrey follow suit.  While the last few days  hadn’t been anywhere near as harrowing for them as for Duke, they hadn’t been easy for Nathan or for Audrey either.  Duke’s grief had been heart-wrenching, raw and devastating all over again like it had been at first.  Watching Duke try to smile and be strong in the face of it was downright painful – watching him fail, even more so.  Both of them hated seeing Duke like that, and neither of them liked feeling helpless about it.

He didn’t even know what had been in that letter, but he had a sneaking suspicion it would make him wish he’d been the one to kill Wade instead.

There was some solace in knowing how much worse it would have been for Duke without them, but not much, not when he remembered the way Duke had sat there staring at that letter with a gutted, hollow expression after reading it.  That exhausted blankness might have been even worse than the bone-deep sorrow.  And the fact that Duke had needed to come home badly enough to ask, even though it meant Audrey and Nathan would have to stay up all night driving…that was definitely not a good sign.  The fact that he was already asleep now when he’d spend most of the previous afternoon and night sleeping, albeit in shifts, was not encouraging either.  Maybe things would look better once Duke had rested a little more here at home, but if not Nathan was going to see if that shrink offered emergency appointments.

He had no idea whether Duke had even been willing to talk to her about Wade yet, but if not then maybe he needed to start.

Nathan watched Audrey stroke Duke’s hair and murmur to him soothingly.  By her expression, she was just as worried as he was.  They’d both gotten enough sleep that they really weren’t inclined to doze off now, but there wasn’t much they could do except simply be here for Duke.

It did seem to be helping, though.  Duke definitely looked more relaxed than he’d been the last few nights in the hotel.  His expression was still sad even in sleep, but without the edge of stress that had been hounding him since the lawyer’s letter had named him Wade’s heir.

When Audrey’s voice gave out Nathan took over.  He wasn’t one for soothing nothings or lullabies, but he talked about some cases he’d worked, how glad he was to be home, speculated on what kind of clients the Agency might see once word had gotten out enough that they _had_ clients.  It was strange and uncomfortable, breaking his habitual quiet to fill the silence, but it was what Duke needed, and that was that.

**

It was midafternoon when Duke woke, about the same time as they’d left Chicago the day before.  He lay still and watched Audrey and Nathan talking quietly, feeling both tremendous love for them and an equal fear.   _Humans don’t love the way we do_ , Wade had said.

How long would it be before Audrey and Nathan decided that Duke was too needy, too clingy, too demanding?

Something must have alerted them that he was awake, as they turned to him with faces full of affection and worry.

“Sleep well?” Nathan asked.

“Are you feeling any better?” Audrey wanted to know.

“Yeah.  Gonna go grab a shower,” Duke told them.  He grabbed a few clean clothes, pausing on his way out the door to pull the wrinkled letter from his pocket.  “You two should know.” He said simply, dropping it on the bed and heading for the bathroom before they could reach it.

He took far more time in the shower than was necessary  - enough to be rude, even, given that they probably wanted to follow suit.  But the pity on their faces when they read the letter was more than he wanted to face.  He delayed as long as he could, then dressed and headed out, finding them in the galley.

It wasn’t pity in their expressions.  It was anger.

“Sorry, Duke, but Wade was an _asshole_ ,” Nathan growled.

“He didn’t know what he was talking about either,” Audrey said, waving the letter irritably.  “This whole bit about humans can’t love you?  Complete bullcrap.”

Their ire brought a faint smile to Duke’s face, reluctant but genuine.  “Yeah?”

“Humans _he_ knew might’ve been cold-hearted bastards, doesn’t meant the rest of us are,” Nathan grunted sourly.

“Nathan’s right.  We already know his ex-wife was a horrible person, based on the whole mess with his estate.  And his friends can’t have been any kind of good friends if they ditched him like they did.”  Audrey went up to Duke and cupped his face in her hands.  “We are not like that.  Tell your insecurities to take a hike,” she smiled.

“Said from the beginning, not going anywhere,” Nathan agreed, giving Duke’s shoulder a squeeze.  “Hasn’t changed.”

Duke closed his eyes, letting their touch ground and reassure him.  Maybe Wade was right, maybe humans couldn’t be pack.  He’d lost people that way before.  But maybe Audrey and Nathan were right.  Maybe it was about the people, not whether they were human or wolf.  Maybe he’d just needed to find the right people.

Audrey and Nathan felt very much like the right people.

“Yeah, okay,” Duke agreed.  “Insecurities have been instructed to take a long walk off a short pier.”

“Good,” Audrey patted Duke’s shoulder.  “And don’t even get me started on that ‘it’s in our blood’ nonsense.  It had nothing to do with blood and everything to do with your father’s abuse, and you, Duke, you are stronger than that.”

“I have nightmares about that,” Duke said very softly.  “Being like them.  Turning on you two.  Laughing at all the blood.”

Audrey and Nathan promptly folded him into a hug so tight he could barely breathe.

“Never gonna happen,” Duke said firmly.

“That’s not you.  That will never be you.  You are not them, you are not like them, you never will be.  You are a good man and a kind person, the most gentle and selfless soul I’ve ever met,” Audrey told him firmly.  “You saw that poison for what it was and you turned your back on it.  You have nothing to fear from your family.”

Duke rested his forehead against hers, sighing softly.  “What did I ever do to deserve you?”

“You’re the best of all of them, hands down,” Nathan answered.  “He got that much right.”

“Guys, stop, you’re making me blush,” Duke joked – though he really was a charming shade of embarrassed pink.

“C’mon, then,” Nathan guided him toward the table.  “I’ll make pancakes.”

Later, Duke knew, he would have to bring Wade’s things in from the car, sort and stow them.  Later, he’d need to check over the Rouge, and he’d be glad to do anything that kept him from thinking about the loss of his brother and the letter he’d left behind.

But for now he was home with his pack, and there were pancakes to rescue from Nathan’s dubious culinary skills.

  
  



	6. Full moon - home

A few days later when the full moon came again, Duke headed down to the hold with slightly less dread than last month.  He was still reluctant, but having Audrey and Nathan there to support him helped – at least, now that he was sure he wouldn’t hurt them.  He’d insisted on still being locked in while he changed, but had agreed to come out afterward.

Nathan and Audrey were once again instructed to wait half an hour before opening the heavy door to let Duke out, and they had agreed even though they weren’t happy about it.

When the massive door swung open, Duke hesitantly emerged. 

“You’re fine, Duke,” Audrey smiled encouragingly, resting a hand on his back.

“Nothing bad’s gonna happen,” Nathan agreed.

Duke gave each of them a brief nuzzle before turning to cautiously explore the rest of the hold.  It was very different, being in his own home as a wolf, everything from visual perspective to scent was entirely new.  He felt awkward in this body as well; he’d spent so little time actually inhabiting it aside from that frantic race to save Audrey and Nathan from his brother, when urgency had allowed instinct to take over and guide him.  Now he just felt like a stranger in his own skin – his terrifying, potentially lethal skin.

He’d spent so long hating and fearing the wolf, locking himself up securely to keep the monster contained lest he wake to find himself a murderer.  Even as a child he’d never had pack bonds secure enough to stabilize him, the full moon had always held the threat of bloodshed and terror.  As much as he knew that he wasn’t a danger now, it was still impossible to separate the wolf from the monster in his mind.

“Do you want to come upstairs?” Audrey smiled.  “It’ll be much more comfortable up there.”

After a moment Duke nodded.  He walked over to the ladder and contemplated it.  He might be dexterous enough to manage it once he was more used to this form, but not now, not yet.  He could probably clear the ten foot jump, though.  He looked around to see if there was room enough – it would be tight, but probably manageable.  He gathered himself and leapt.

There was room enough, to be sure, but he’d greatly underestimated his own strength.  He hit the ceiling with a yelp and tumbled back down the hatch.

Audrey and Nathan hurried over as Duke got to his feet.  “All you all right?” Audrey asked.

“That looked rough,” Nathan agreed.

Duke shook himself off and headbutted them reassuringly.  It hadn’t been any fun, that was for sure, but it took a whole lot more than that to hurt a werewolf.

“We should pull some of the crates over, make some stairs,” Nathen offered.

“Good idea,” Audrey nodded, going over to grab one.  Duke got behind another and pushed, wanting to do his part. 

The flaw in the plan became apparent when left the hold and found their third ladder, with no nearby crates to use this time.  Duke managed an ungainly scramble up it but felt the lack of dignity sorely.

“We’re going to need to do some remodeling,” Audrey shook her head.

“Can you refit these?  Collapsible stairs maybe?” Nathan said doubtfully.

Duke shrugged.  It wasn’t something he’d really considered.

“We’ll look into it,” Audrey decided.  The last ladder into the living quarters thankfully had some clear space in front of it and Duke was able to start a little way back and just run up the wall.  It was still awkward but less so then trying to climb.  Wolves were really not built for that, even incredibly huge strong ones.

“That is really impressive,” Audrey whistled.

“Hell of a thing,” Nathan agreed. 

Embarrassed, Duke set about prowling around his home, learning how to relate to it now.

“Maybe we should consider a full-scale redesign,” Audrey mused, watching him start to climb onto the couch only to think better of it as it creaked ominously beneath his weight.

“We’ll need to reinforce the couch and the bed, at least,” Nathan nodded.  “Cinder blocks should do it.”

“More than just that.  The whole place should be wolf-friendly now that Duke doesn’t need to stay below every month.” 

Coming back over to them, Duke shook his head.  It wasn’t worth it, not for one night once a month.

Guessing what he was thinking, Audrey stroked his ears and smiled.  “It’s fine, it’s no big deal.  We can make it accommodating for the full moons and still have it be the home you know and love the rest of the month too.  We want you to be comfortable in your home no matter what form you’re in.”

Deeply grateful, Duke nuzzled her shoulder, leaning against her and sighing.

“In the meantime we can move the couch cushions to the floor.  Maybe grab some blankets and make a fort like when we were kids,” Nathan suggested with a slight smile. 

Chuffing a canine laugh, Duke trotted over and started tugging the cushions off the couch.


	7. Simon's legacy

It was two weeks before Duke caved to the nagging thoughts in the back of his head and began gathering all the information he could on the life – and more importantly, the death – of Simon Crocker.

He didn’t give a damn about Wade charging him with avenging their father.  Even if Simon hadn’t deserved death – and there was little doubt in Duke’s mind that he had – the fact that Wade had survived his own quest for vengeance made Duke think that whoever the hunter was that had gotten the better of Simon Crocker, he hadn’t gotten off so lightly against his son.

It was possible the hunter had survived, of course.  Wade might have gone fully feral and lost interest before tracking him down, or the hunter might have hurt Wade badly enough that he’d decided revenge wasn’t worth his life.  But that wasn’t what was bothering Duke.  He was no fan of hunters – xenophobic murderers, the lot of them – and he valued his hide too much to get anywhere near one.

No, it was what the letter said about the hunter having killed Simon out of vengeance.  It was probably nothing, and he’d been telling himself that for the last two weeks.  Most likely some hunter had tracked Simon down and gotten himself killed, and his buddy had come after the rouge wolf.  Odds were good that it really had been that simple.

But there was one thing wrong with that story.  Hunters seldom killed in revenge for the death of their own.  Hunters were fanatics, accepting daily risk of death in exchange for – as they saw it – making the world a safer place for innocent humans.  They considered themselves dead men walking, and a ‘glorious’ death in battle was a fate to be desired, not avenged.

What could Simon have done that was so terrible a hunter would abandon his deeply ingrained detachment from emotion to pursue bloody revenge?

**

A week later, he was forced to give up in disgust.  Even with his private investigator’s license he could find no record of Simon Crocker’s death, let alone the details of the incident, and his contacts hadn’t been able to turn up any information either.  Trying to trace Simon’s movements after he’d left home for the last time - long before word of his death had trickled back to his sons - was equally fruitless. 

Whatever victims were out there, they were beyond the reach of Duke to atone for.  He could only hope that whatever fatal tale of tragedy and revenge Simon Crocker had begun, it had ended with Wade’s death.  


	8. Full moon - freedom

“So I was thinking about tomorrow’s full moon,” Duke said as he flipped their burgers and put marinated vegetables on the grill.  “We could maybe take the Rouge out for the night, there’s a ton of little uninhabited islands all up and down the coast.  I’m familiar with a lot of ‘em from back when…when I had reasons to be.”

Nathan rolled his eyes.  “From when you were smuggling.  Don’t care, Duke.  Water under the bridge.”

Audrey poked Nathan’s shoulder playfully.  “Hey, can you blame him?  You are an awfully by-the-rules kinda guy,” she teased, not wanting Duke to feel guilty for his paranoia.

Duke looked sheepish.  He hadn’t really thought Nathan would make an issue of it, but he’d gone from earliest childhood to most of his adult life thinking of law enforcement as enemies, and those habits weren’t so easy to shake.  He appreciated the excuse Audrey was giving him.  “Anyhow.  I was thinking we could head out in the afternoon, check the place over to make sure there isn’t some random camper or fisherman hanging around, and then after dinner we could just…stay.”

“Big step,” Nathan said approvingly, ruffling Duke’s hair.

“That sounds great, we’re proud of you,” Audrey beamed and hugged him.

“It’s thanks to you guys,” Duke murmured, leaning against them.

**

The island Duke took them to was not what Audrey thought of as a small island – not one of the little heaps of rocks with a few scraggly trees that dotted the coast, but a place large enough to have fields of sea grass and thick pine woods.  They took a little speedboat in from the Rouge, pulling it up on the wide strip of sandy beach. 

The first order of business was, of course, to do a systematic search of the island and make sure it really was as deserted as it looked.  Not a soul was found, and Duke confirmed there was no human scent.  That established, they set up a camp on the beach – just a fire pit and a tarp lean-to with a pile of blankets really, the weather was fine and the sea air would keep insect pests at bay – and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and fishing and exploring tidepools.  As the sun set they enjoyed a fine dinner of the fish they’d caught, roasted over the fire along with vegetables they’d brought.

As dark began to fall Duke headed down the beach, well away from the fire and where they’d left the boat.  “I don’t think I’d try to hurt you,” he told Nathan and Audrey, “But just in case, keep a fair distance and if anything looks even the least bit off, get on the boat and put a good bit of water between you and me.”

“Understood,” Nathan nodded, drawing Audrey back.

Duke stripped off his shorts – all he had on, after swimming earlier – and waited.

The Change looked no less horrific now than it had every other time, the transformation of flesh and bone making Duke writhe and cry out in pain **.** Nathan left his hand on Audrey’s shoulder, holding tight, as much for comfort as to hold them both back from running to their tormented wolf. 

All three of them breathed a sigh of relief when it was over, Duke getting to his feet and shaking the sand off his coat as the pain faded.  Audrey and Nathan went over at once, stroking his fur and asking anxiously if he was feeling all right.  Duke nuzzled them until they seemed reassured, then stepped back and looked up at the moon, letting its light wash over him.

He had never been free at the full moon like this, fully himself and not in crisis.  Even the last couple of months, he’d been closed away from the wild light, thick steel between himself and freedom.

He wanted to run.

He turned back to his pack for one more reassuring nuzzle, then gave a canine grin and tapped Nathan on the shoulder with one massive paw before spinning on his heels and racing up the beach.

Nathan blinked and looked at Audrey.  “Was that…tag?”

“I think you’re It,” Audrey laughed.  “Although how you ever plan to catch him is beyond me.  Look at him  _ run _ .”

“It’s really something,” Nathan said admiringly. 

Duke came back, literally running circles around them, tail waving with excitement.  Nathan watched and waited, lunging out as Duke passed to touch his flank.  “Tag,” he chuckled.

Duke chuffed a laugh, pausing in his run to gently nudge Audrey before racing off again, towards the woods this time.  The other two laughed and followed, though at a far more leisurely pace. 

“Not so clumsy anymore, is he?”  Nathan observed, watching Duke run through the woods.

Audrey nodded.  “He’s slowed down a lot, but he’s not tripping over roots or running into tree trunks.  He’s getting to be more comfortable in this body.  I’m really glad he decided to do this, I think it’s the best thing for him.”

Nathan nodded.  “Wasn’t good for him to be cooped up, even on the Rouge.  He stays himself now, no reason he can’t be free.”

“I know.  But it’ll take time for him to trust himself.  He’s made huge progress, he knows he won’t hurt us at least.  He’ll get to the point where he knows he won’t hurt anyone.”

“Will anyone hurt him, though?  After last winter no one’s going to react well to a wolf in Haven.”

“That’s true,” Audrey said soberly.  “There might not be much they can do but the last thing we need is a witch hunt.  Haven’s just starting to see Duke for who he really is, if they find out  _ what _ he is they’ll be up in arms.”

“He can’t openly be part of society.  This might be as close to true freedom as he’ll ever have,” Nathan said quietly.

The watched him run in silence, bursting out onto the meadow, moonlight silver on his fur as he darted back and forth in playful pursuit of a rabbit.

Then he tripped over the rabbit, tumbling nose over tail with a startled yip, and laughter broke the mood.


	9. First case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: child in danger/child imprisonment

It was midafternoon when Audrey and Nate got a text from Duke, asking them to come to the Gull when they had a chance.  Duke was excited when they got there, leading them out back to the deck.  It was a little windy and no one else was eating outside, so they had privacy.  “We have our first case!”

Audrey grinned.  “That’s amazing!  What’s it about?”

“Contact I have up in Canada messaged me.  There’s a settlement of centaurs up near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, actually not too far from here.  Some asshole human kidnapped one of their kids.  They trailed him, but he took her into town and they can’t follow him there.  It’s gonna take humans – or people who look human – to get to her and get her out.”

Audrey grinned.  “Nathan, think you have a few vacation days coming?”

“I think I just might.”

**

The centaurs were not what they were expecting.  Their ‘human’ halves were barely reminiscent of human, being covered in the same coarse horsehair that covered their equine bodies, and men and women alike were flat-chested.  Their faces were broad and their features crude, but their eyes were intelligent. 

Their encampment was busy, the centaurs trotting about briskly or loading possessions into packs.  It looked as if they were breaking camp, perhaps not surprising given what had happened.  Wolves skirted the edge of the forest – ordinary ones, not werewolves, the centaurs’ companions.

The centaurs eyed Audrey and Nathan distrustfully, but they allowed Duke to come forward to represent them.  They spoke no human language - not uncommon among the races who by their nature had to remain hidden from mankind, Duke had explained on the way there - but Duke had met enough centaurs in his travels to translate.

After a brief conversation, Duke gave the stallion elder a respectful nod and returned to Audrey and Nathan.  “I got a description of the truck, where they lost it, and what direction it was headed.  They don’t use human writing systems either but their visual memory is good, good enough to get us a license plate.  Should be a piece of cake.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Nathan muttered.

Audrey turned to face the centaurs and gave the same respectful nod that Duke had.  She made no promises, but was no less determined to save the kidnapped child.  “All right, boys, let’s get this kid back home.”

**

The moon was new, and they used the cover of darkness to sneak up to the property whose address had been on the truck’s registration papers.  The entire place was unkempt, neglected in a way that spoke of indifference rather than emptiness.  The house and outbuildings leaned and sagged in disrepair, the lawn was cluttered with junk, and the air of uncleanliness made Duke’s skin twitch.

The centaur child was in a run-down, filthy stable, chained up in a tiny stall.  Audrey buried her anger to speak soothingly to the filly, but the child cringed away from the three of them.  When Nathan tried to edge close enough to look at the lock she shied away, backing into the wall with a worryingly loud thud.  He backed away, returning to the others.  “Can’t blame her for being terrified of people, but we need her to trust us if we’re going to get her safely out of here.  Can’t have her making a racket and waking this scumbag, or getting loose and running out into traffic in her panic.”

“I have an idea,” Duke said slowly.  “In theory it should work but I’ve never tried it so I don’t know if it will – or what will happen if it does.  Just…be ready for anything, okay?”

“We’ll back your plan,” Nathan agreed.

Duke began undressing.  Audrey’s eyes widened.  Duke had never dared attempt the Change deliberately, never outside of the full moon before.  She had every confidence he could do it, but she hadn’t expected he’d try. 

Nathan stood beside Duke, a hand on his shoulder.  “You’ll be fine.  You can do this.”

Duke gave him a grateful look, then shuddered as his flesh began to shift and warp.  He got to his feet as a wolf a moment later, looking at the filly.  She didn’t seem afraid of him, so he slowly walked over in a friendly stance, his ears relaxed and his tail down and slowly wagging.  She reached out to him and he licked her hands.  She gave a little soft cry and hugged him tightly.  He nuzzled her comfortingly, stretching up to bite through the heavy chains that held her.

“Good work, Duke,” Audrey smiled.  “Let’s get her home.”

With nudges of his nose, Duke coaxed the young centaur to come with him.  She gave Audrey and Nathan a fearful look but walked beside Duke, one hand on his back.

They were halfway across the yard when floodlights switched on.  “Don’t you move, now.  I knew some thieving bastard would come.  I ain’t having none of it.  That thing’s my ticket to fame and fortune, soon’s I convince the world it ain’t no hoax.  You lot get back in the barn now, and bring your dog with you – move!”  He lifted the shotgun and aimed it at Nathan’s chest.

With a growl, Duke sprang.  There was enough distance between them that the man was able to bring his shotgun around and fire it.  It hit Duke square in the chest but the wolf was already midair, the impact barely slowing him.  He knocked the man flat, his weight pinning him to the mud.  He leaned down to where the shotgun had been knocked out of the man’s hands, powerful jaws closing around the weapon.  He bit down with massive fangs, and with a squeal of tortured metal the weapon dropped to the ground in pieces. 

Audrey and Nathan had hurried toward him the minute the gun went off.  “Duke, you all right?” Nathan asked, kneeling down to check his chest.  There was blood in the pale grey fur, but the wound had already healed.

“Call it off,” the man croaked.  “Call off your fucking animal!”

Audrey stared at him with cold fury.  “You have no idea how lucky you are to be alive right now.  And quite frankly, I’m not seeing any reason why he should let you go.  You kidnapped a child.  That’s what she is – not your ticket, not some lab rat or sideshow freak, not a  _ thing _ , but a terrified child you tore from her family.”

“A family that wants her back very badly,” Nathan added.  “Did you think you were safe here, where they wouldn’t come?  You have no idea what you meddled with.  I’d stay out of those woods from now on if I were you – and stay away from what you don’t understand.  There’s more in those woods than centaurs.”

The man glanced from him to Duke, who growled, lips lifting to show the terrifying fangs.  “All right, all right, point taken you fuckers!  Take the damn thing and get away from me.”

“Duke, let him up please,” Audrey patted him on the back.

Duke stepped aside, then paused and gave a canine grin.  Very deliberately, he cocked his leg and pissed on the kidnapper.

“Oh my god, Duke,” Audrey laughed.  Even the centaur girl was giggling.  Looking entirely pleased with himself, Duke trotted back over to the filly and nuzzled her shoulder, escorting her out of the muddy yard. 

It took some cajoling to get her into the back of Duke’s rover – it must have seemed too much like the truck the kidnapper had used.  But Duke jumped in himself, whining coaxingly, and she reluctantly climbed in.  By the time they’d driven as far as four wheels could take them she seemed familiar with the area, scrambling out as soon as they stopped and racing into the woods, calling out.

Duke went with her, and Nathan and Audrey followed at a more sedate pace, knowing Duke would come back and find them if they needed it.

“I’m so proud of Duke,” Audrey beamed.

“Me too,” Nathan nodded.  “I was starting to worry he’d never feel comfortable changing voluntarily.”

“If it had been for his own sake, I’m not sure he ever would have tried.  Duke’s always better at being brave for others than for his own sake.”

“You might be right,” Nathan conceded.  “But hopefully now he knows he can, and be safe, he’ll be okay with it.”

“Or at least willing to consider it.  But it’s progress – in fact, it’s a huge step.  It’ll take time before he’s fully comfortable with himself, we knew that going into this.”

“I probably wouldn’t be comfortable changing either, if every time I had before I’d become a mindless killer,” Nathan agreed.

“Exactly.  Having a healthy, stable pack bond isn’t something he’s used to.  He doesn’t know how to be himself, and that’s heartbreaking and infuriating.  We’re absolutely going to help him past that, but it won’t happen quickly.”

“Absolutely,” Nathan agreed quietly.

Duke came trotting up to them not long after, looking like he’d thoroughly enjoyed his run.  He had something new around his neck, a good-sized deerskin pouch.

“Hey, Duke,” Audrey smiled and run her fingers through his fur.  “Having a good time?”

He gently headbutted her, nuzzling her shoulder.

“You wanna stay a wolf and run around out here for a bit?” Nathan asked. “Or do you think you’re ready to be human again?”

Duke considered that, but went over to him and nudged at the bundle of clothes Nathan was carrying for him.

Nathan set them down, and they waited beside him as he became human once more.  Audrey hugged him as he got to his feet, gently resting a hand on his chest where the shotgun had hit.  “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Nathan nodded, coming over to check again that he was unhurt.  “We let that bastard off too lightly.”

“It’s okay guys, I’m fine,” Duke reassured them.  “I won’t lie, it hurt like a sonofabitch, but it takes more than that to harm a werewolf.”

“I guess you did kind of get revenge on him.” Audrey grinned.

Duke grinned back, sheepishly.  “Um, it seemed like the thing to do at the time?”

“Not the punishment I’d have chosen, but I’ll take it,” Nathan allowed.  He touched the pouch hanging around Duke’s neck.  “What’s this?”

“The herd gave it to me,” Duke explained as he got dressed.  “They met us a couple miles from where we left you guys.  Hell of a reunion, I wish you guys could’ve seen it.  The whole herd gathered around her and her parents, everyone making sure she was okay and fussing over her.  I thought about slipping away quietly, but I thought it might be rude.  She told them what happened, and when she was done, the…uh…” he flushed, looking embarrassed, “the herd came and bowed to me.  The elder said he wanted their gratitude to be more lasting than words voiced and lost to the air, so he wrote on a birchbark scroll and put that and something in the pouch for us.”

Audrey smiled and kissed his cheek.  “You deserved that bow.  You were great back there.”

“We’re proud of you,” Nathan agreed, ruffling Duke’s hair.  “You saved that little girl, you’re a hero.”

Duke looked embarrassed, but pleased.  Unlike the last time he’d been called a hero, this time he could actually feel good about it.

“So what does the scroll say?” Audrey asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

Duke pulled it out and carefully unrolled it, reading the twiggy scratches of the centaurs’ written language.  “There are no thanks enough for restoring our daughter to us, our people are ever in your debt.  For your deeds you should be feasted and celebrated, it is to our shame we cannot honor you as you deserve.  We cannot stay, the danger is too great.  We strike camp for the north, and we will not return.  But we will not forget.  The herd will sing songs to honor you, and centaur voices will still carry them to the wind when the world of men no longer remembers your names.  The North will hear of you, and the Wild People will know that when there is a grievance they cannot redress themselves, help is to be had.  But we know also that neither debt nor honor fills stomachs, so we gift you with such as the world of men values.”

“Such as the world of men values?” Nathan asked.

Duke upended the pouch, and into his palm spilled a pile of soft gold nuggets.


	10. Contingency plan

Duke cooked dinner that night, grilling steaks on the deck of the Rouge, and they lounged around enjoying the late summer sunset as they ate.  After dinner, Nathan and Audrey cleaned up, gently but firmly insisting on the ‘you cook, we clean’ division of labor.  Duke lingered in the kitchen anyway. 

Afterwards, when they retired to the couch, Duke spoke up.  “So…I feel like there’s something we should discuss.”

“What’s that?” Nathan asked, looking a little worried.

“When Audrey brought up this idea, I knew it’d be dangerous.  I mean, not like most supernaturals are inherently any more violent than human beings, but they are generally a lot more dangerous if they choose to be.  And then there’s assholes like that kidnapper, perfectly human but aiming a shotgun at you and probably perfectly willing to pull the trigger.”

“Are you not okay with this?” Audrey asked.  “We can stop, figure something else out.”

“What do we need to do to help you feel like we’re safe?” Nathan asked.

Duke smiled ruefully.  “You guys are sweet.  But this isn’t about me, and I don’t want to stop.  I think this is an amazing thing we’re doing, and I know you’re enjoying it.  I feel like…this is what we’re meant to be doing, you know?”

Audrey and Nathan nodded.  They’d both felt the same.

“What I wanted to say is…” Duke took a deep breath.  “We should talk about whether I would ever turn you.”

“Not if you’re not okay with that,” Nathan said immediately.

“You don’t sound like that’s something you’d be comfortable doing,” Audrey agreed.

Duke grimaced.  “It’s…complicated.  On the one hand, you’re not wrong.  A hell of a lot of the bad shit in my life has been because I’m a wolf, and the thought of either of you ever ending up on your own, needing a safe room or falling into bad pack bonds, that makes me sick.  I would never, ever want either of you going through any of that.  And I’d never abandon you, not while I draw breath, but in this line of business even I can’t guarantee living to a ripe old age.”

Audrey took his hand.  “You don’t have to do this out of fear for us.  Not if you don’t want to.”

“You know, you say that, but honestly the idea of you going up against ogres or vampires or banshees or whatever as soft squishy humans is fucking terrifying.  I’d never let either of you come to harm but if I failed to protect you, that…I don’t think I could live with myself.”

Nathan put an arm around him.  “I think we all need some time to think about this.  In the meantime, why not handle it like a living will?  If anything happens that we won’t survive, you can turn us to save our lives – permission granted in advance.”

“If you got hurt in the first place, it probably means I’m not there to turn you anyway,” Duke frowned.

“Maybe, maybe not.  Death doesn’t have to be immediate to be a certainty. If there’s a situation where you can only protect one of us, you might still be in time to turn the other,” Audrey pointed out.

Duke hesitated, but nodded.  “Yeah.  Yeah, that sounds good.  I don’t know that I’ll like it, but it’d be better than losing you.”


	11. Special Investigations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Agent Howard is an asshole

“Welcome to the Three Gulls Detective Agency, how can I help you?” Audrey greeted with a carefully neutral face.  She would have wagered good money that the two people who had just walked in were FBI, and she didn’t think it was a coincidence that any former colleagues of hers were here.  She didn’t know if Nathan and Duke were aware of it too, but they shifted to stand just behind her to either side, flanking her protectively.

“Special Agent Audrey Parker.  Good to meet you,” the man didn’t smile as he held out a hand for Audrey to shake.

“ _ Former _ agent,” Audrey corrected as she returned the handshake firmly.  “My partners, Nathan Wuornos and Duke Crocker.  You’re with the Bureau, I presume?”

“Well spotted.  My name is Howard, I’m in charge of Special Investigations.”  He didn’t bother to introduce the dark-haired woman behind him, and he didn’t offer to shake Nathan or Duke’s hands.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of that division,” Audrey said shortly, disliking his lack of regard for everyone else in the room.

“We fly under the radar,” Howard said blandly.  “We handle cases like the one that brought you to Haven.  You did good work on that case.”

Nathan stiffened with outrage.  “That’s  _ your _ job?  Then where the hell were you!  Ten people died – people  _ I _ was responsible for protecting.  How many of them would still be alive right now if you’d done your damn job?”

The woman had the good grace to look uncomfortable, but Howard didn’t even respond to the angry outburst.  “To get to the point, Agent Parker – SI could use someone like you.  We’ll reinstate you back at the Bureau with no interruptions to your benefits or seniority, at two pay grades above your former salary and a generous expense account.  And of course you will have the full support of SI behind your investigations.  We have a Bureau car waiting and temporary housing set aside, you can be moved in by the end of the day.  I have all the paperwork in order,” he pulled out a folder.

Audrey’s eyes narrowed and she reached out to rest her hands on Nathan and Duke’s arms, forestalling their protests.  She could practically feel Duke’s panic-fueled defensiveness and Nathan’s furious indignation.  “The full support of SI?  Like I had on my last case?” she said bitingly.  “You’re right about one thing, Howard.  I did do good work on that case.  And I did it without any help from this division of yours.  I can’t say I’m particularly inclined to trust you when you left me in the lurch once already.”

“An unfortunate first impression that we will remedy in time,” Howard held out the papers.

Audrey set her shoulders, firmed her stance, and glared.  “If you think you can come in here high-handedly assuming I’ll fall into line on your say-so, you have another think coming.  The answer is no, Howard, and it’s not going to change.  I don’t want to see you in here again and frankly I don’t want to see you in Haven, period.”

Howard pulled out a business card, dropping it on Audrey’s desk when she refused to take it.  “I’ll be expecting your call, once you realize your mistake.”

He turned to go, and the female agent spoke up for the first time.  “With your permission, sir, I’d like to stay in Haven and follow up on something.  I can take the other car and have it back in the motor pool by the end of the day.”  He gave her the barest nod and turned to leave.

When he was gone she turned to meet the other three’s wary stares.  “I am  _ so _ sorry about him, he can be such an arrogant jackass.”

The tension broke, with Audrey barking a laugh, Nathan shaking his head, and Duke sighing in relief. 

“Seriously!” Audrey exclaimed.  “Is he like that all the time?”

“Unfortunately, yes.  I swear to god, he has so few social skills he’s like some badly-made homunculus.”

“In this line of work, are we sure he’s not?” Audrey snorted.  “I notice he didn’t see fit to introduce you, either.”

“Audrey Parker, believe it or not.”

Audrey blinked.  “Yes?  Believe what or not?”

The agent laughed.  “No, I mean, that is coincidentally also my name,” she pulled out her badge and sure enough, it read “Special Agent Audrey Parker.”

“I’ll be damned,” Audrey grinned.  “I knew my name wasn’t completely bizarre but I didn’t think it was common enough to meet another me.”

“Small world,” she grinned back, shaking hands all around. 

“I just gotta ask,” Duke said, “Did you actually have anything to follow up on, or did you just want an excuse to get away from that arrogant dick of a boss for a bit?”

“Both,” she smirked, a wicked expression that called to mind their own Audrey.  “Mostly I just wanted to say, I figure you’re probably missing the resources that you had at the Bureau, and I wanted to let you know you can tap me if there’s something you need.  Think of me as your liaison to mundane law enforcement.  Well, semi-mundane, anyhow.”

“Why would you do that?” Duke asked suspiciously.

“And what will your boss think of it?” Nathan added.

“I’ll just tell Howard it’s a recruitment tactic.  He’s such a self-serving bastard that it’d never cross his mind that I might actually be doing it just to help.  It’s rough enough out there for supernatural investigations, we gotta stick together.  Especially when we share a name.”

“Well.  Thanks,” Audrey smiled as she took the agent’s card.  “You’re not wrong, there’ve definitely been times when I could have used Bureau resources.  And the kind of work we do, there’s only so much I can ask of my contacts there.”

“I sure hear that,” the other Audrey agreed. 

“Hey, how much  _ do _ you know about what went down here?” Duke asked guardedly.

“We figured it was a werewolf, especially after the official report was that a wolf-like trained dog had been found responsible and killed, and that ended the attacks.  We don’t know much else, though, we didn’t do our own investigation.”  She turned to Nathan.  “And Howard may not give a damn, but I am sorry about the people you lost.  We’re a small group and we’re spread pretty thin, and we just didn’t have anyone to spare.  Not that this excuses us, but I figure you deserve to know why the people who should have been there to help weren’t.”

“Appreciate the honesty,” Nathan allowed.

‘What was bad enough that almost a dozen werewolf deaths weren’t the priority?” Duke asked with morbid curiosity.

“I hope you never find out,” she said grimly.  “We lost two agents on that case, in addition to two dozen civilians.  It’s why Howard was pushing so hard for you to join up.”

“If you’re being recruitment good cop to Howard’s bad cop, my answer hasn’t changed,” Audrey told her.  “My life is here now – my home and my work and the people I care about –even if it weren’t for his domineering disaster of a recruitment attempt, I still wouldn’t be interested.”

She shook her head, hands raised in a gesture of surrender.  “Nothing like that – in fact, just the opposite.  I was hoping you might be interested in handling some of our overflow, the cases like yours that we don’t have the manpower to investigate.  You wouldn’t be working for SI, but the division can pay you out of the budget – like independent consulting.”

Nathan looked at Audrey.  “Could use the work,” he admitted.

Audrey considered it.  “The Three Gulls Agency is…maybe a little different than what SI does.  We founded the agency to help supernaturals deal with crime within their communities, since they can’t turn to human law enforcement and don’t have adequate resources of their own to address the issue.  We’re not hunters.  We’ll protect humans too, if they’re innocent, but our mission is not to hunt down and contain or destroy supernatural threats.”

“I see,” the agent looked intrigued.  “That’s good, that’s a niche I bet no one was filling.  SI has a few supernatural liaisons but for the most part we don’t really deal with their perspective.  We’re not quite hunters, though we have contacts in that community too – mostly we deal with the intersection of human law enforcement and the supernatural.  But if we get word of any situations that sound like they’d be your type of thing, I’ll give you a heads up.”

“Thanks,” Audrey smiled.  “And I tell you what, I might not be interested in your openings but I can think of a few agents in my old division you might look into.  I can’t say how they’d handle all the woo-woo bullshit, as a friend of mine calls it, but they’re good people and good agents, people I’d want to have my back when the shit hits the fan.”

“Can’t ask for more than that,” the other Audrey smiled.  “And I promise I’m done talking shop for the time being.  You wouldn’t happen to know a place where I can get a good lunch, preferably seafood, maybe a drink?”

“I know just the place,” Audrey told her, as Duke grinned and Nathan hung up the ‘out to lunch’ sign.  "You know, it's probably a good thing I'm not interested anyhow.  Can you imagine the confusion with two Audrey Parkers running around?"


	12. Jennifer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: self-deprecating humor about mental illness, messages from beyond the grave, grieving

The dinner crowd had died down and Nathan and Audrey were lingering over dessert, hoping Duke would come and join them.  They didn’t take much notice of the young woman who came in at first – the Gull was popular with tourists, so unfamiliar faces weren’t rare.

“Excuse me, is Duke Crocker here?”

That got their attention.

Tracy, who was apparently used to the kind of people who might come looking for Duke, gave her a polite but noncommittal smile.  “I think he might have headed out for the night.  Let me go check.”

“Why do you want to know?” Nathan spoke up.  The brunette didn’t look threatening – she was short, with a friendly smile and big dark eyes, a general pixie-ish air about her.  But Nathan knew Audrey Parker, and wasn’t about to assume that a small woman with a sweet smile wasn’t dangerous.

She looked at him curiously.  “I really only better tell that to him.  Are you his bodyguard?”

Audrey couldn’t help it – she laughed.  Even Nathan had to fight not to smile, given how ludicrous the idea was.

“So, Tracy told me there was a pretty girl asking for me by name,” Duke came out from the back.  He had an easy, charming smile on his lips but his eyes were wary.

“Oh good, you’re here!  Hi, nice to meet you.  I’m Jennifer Mason.  But I think we ought to talk in private.”

Duke looked around.  There were a few customers still scattered around the bar and tables, but the deck was empty.  “We can talk out back.”

Audrey and Nathan immediately got up.  If Duke didn’t want them there, he’d say so.

“You really are his bodyguards, wow!  Both of you?”  She looked impressed.

“Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of them,” Duke said as he headed for the desk, not disabusing her of the idea.

Audrey shut the doors behind them, she and Nathan taking up protective positions to either side of Duke, earning a quick, grateful look.

Jennifer gave Duke a nervous smile.  “Well.  Um.  I’m your sister.”

Duke gaped.

“I mean, technically your half-sister.  On your dad’s side.  Oh, but I’m not a werewolf.  I’m…well, whatever my mother was.  I’m not really sure.  Definitely not human, though.  I was adopted, see.  There isn’t really any paperwork I could look at, sealed file and all that.  So I had to trace my family using other ways.”

“Other ways,” Duke managed.

Nathan looked at him.  “If she’s a wizard then we’re done here, we’re gonna go find a nice uninhabited island in the South Pacific and retire.”

It got him a laugh and lightened the mood, which was what he’d been hoping for.

Duke shook his head and opened the doors.  “Tracy, when you get a sec can we get a round of beers out here?”  He looked at Jennifer.  “That okay?”

“Fine by me,” she said agreeably.  “I’d want beer if I were hearing this, too.”

Duke came back and flopped in one of the deck chairs.  “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the old man got around.  But how exactly did you find me?  If there are ways for people to track me down, I’d sure as hell like to know about them.”

“I hear voices in my head,” she gave him a self-deprecating grin.  At their blank looks, she waved a hand dismissively.  “Sorry, bad joke.  I went through the mental health merry-go-round a few times before I found out that all this was actually real.”

“Sounds tough,” Duke said.  “So that makes you…a medium?”

Jennifer grinned.  “Yes and no.  It’s not just the dead I can talk to, it’s other planes of existence in general.  Incorporeal spirit beings, parallel universes, higher and lower planes, so on.  That’s how I found out about my family.  I suppose someone else who can do what I can could find you the same way, if they had reason to look.  But I’ve never met anyone like that.”

“Must be useful.”  Duke was starting to grin as the news really sunk in.  “I have a baby sister.”

Jennifer grinned back.  “Surprise, you’re a big brother.  Congratulations!”

Duke laughed.  “No lie, that’s pretty awesome.  I always thought it’d be nice to have a sister.  Hey, so, this is my pack.  Nathan Wuornos, chief of Haven PD, and Audrey Parker, formerly FBI and currently head of the Three Gulls Detective Agency.”

Jennifer gave them a curious look, squinting a little.  “Oh, now I see it!  Sometimes I have to look at things a little sideways to see what they really are.  I heard about you sometimes when I was looking for Duke but I didn’t know much.  Nice to meet you, thanks for taking care of my brother.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Audrey smiled. 

“It’s nice to know Duke has family,” Nathan added, shaking her hand.

“Family is more than blood.  You know that better than most.”  Her wide dark eyes were suddenly very knowing.

Nathan went very still.  “What does that mean?”

Jennifer tilted her head to the side as if listening to a faint sound, her eyes distant.  “He says he should have told you.  He never meant to make it a secret, he just never knew how to say it, because things….things were never quite good between you.  But he did love you – he could never say it then but he can say it now.  He doesn’t want you never knowing.  He never thought of you as anything but his son, and he wishes he could have made things right.”  She paused, smiling a little.  “But he admits that even if he’d had time, he probably would have still made a mess of it.  He did try.  He just didn’t know how to fix it.  Oh, and he says Audrey was right, he is proud of you.”

Nathan stared at her, wide-eyed and wounded, tears running unnoticed down his cheeks.  Audrey put an arm around him, frowning a little at Jennifer.  Duke was a little more hesitant to reach out, given the topic of conversation, but he took Nathan’s hand.

Jennifer seemed to come back to herself, blinking.  “Oh, I’m sorry!  I didn’t realize, he really wanted me to give you that message, I didn’t know it would hurt you so much to hear it.  I didn’t mean to hurt you, honestly, sometime stuff just…comes out.”

Nathan could only shake his head.  The voice had been her own but the phrasing was his father’s, some of it exactly what he’d tried to tell Nathan when they’d had their fight.  Neither of them had ever spoken of what was said between them that day, there was no way Jennifer could have known unless she really was what she claimed to be.

“I guess I better go,” Jennifer said ruefully, shouldering the pack she had with her.

“Wait, you don’t mean,  _ go _ go, do you?” Duke asked anxiously.  “I mean-”

She was already shaking her head.  “I’ll find a hotel for now.  If you know anyone who’s got an apartment to rent, something cheap, I’d be interested.”

Audrey’s frown grew a little more.  “That's it, you're just gonna pull up roots and move to Haven?  You’ve only just met Duke.”

Jennifer shrugged, her shoulders set defensively and her smile forced.  “Not a lot of roots to pull up.  Once people find out about the psych hospitals and stuff, that's pretty much it, you know?  Jobs and friendships and stuff aren’t so easy to come by when you’ve got a diagnosis of schizophrenia, even one that’s not true.”

Duke stood up and gave her a protective hug, resting his chin on her head for a moment before letting go.  “That’s not something you have to worry about anymore.  I’ll show you to the B&B, the owner owes me a favor and will let you have a room for cheap until you can find something more permanent.” 

Audrey and Nathan gave each other a look, knowing Duke was sold if he hadn't been already.  As Duke walked Jennifer toward the parking lot, Nathan asked Audrey, “So, we're gonna do a background check on her, right?”

“I'll have my FBI contacts run it, it'll be more thorough than what you'll get,” Audrey answered without hesitation.

Nathan nodded, satisfied.  They both knew that Duke was a soft touch for a sob story and they loved that about him.  But they were not as trusting, and they were not about to let anyone take advantage of him.


	13. Rock bottom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: discussion of domestic abuse, emotional abuse, emotional manipulation

As they watched Duke’s former alpha sullenly walk away, Nathan rested a hand on Duke’s shoulder.  “That was really brave of you.”

Duke shook his head.  “That wasn’t brave.  Sure, he knocked me around a little but that was all.  I put up with him for a while and when I got to the point where he was worse than being alone, I told him to piss off.  He wasn't the worst of them, not even close.  The worst of them by far, the  cruelest and most hurtful one of the whole bunch, was a woman - an ordinary human woman I could have snapped in half with my bare hands.  Go figure, huh?” he laughed bitterly.

Audrey sat beside him and rubbed his back.  “You don’t have to tell us if you’d rather not.  But if you want to talk, we’ll listen.”

“We’re here for you,” Nathan agreed, sitting on his other side and taking his hand.

Duke gave Nathan’s hand a squeeze and leaned against Audrey, seeking the contact as he always did when he needed comfort.  He was quiet for a long moment, and when he spoke he looked down and his and Nathan’s joined hands, not meeting their eyes.  “Mara.  Her name was Mara.  She played head games.  People think that stuff like that isn’t a big deal, you know?  Like, as long as they’re not hitting you it’s not so bad.  But Mara…she destroyed me and she did it with nothing but words.  She twisted me up like a goddamned pretzel, made me think that everyone I knew was bound to betray me, made me think no one gave a damn about me, made me believe that she was the only one who would ever love or care for me, made me terrified to lose her.  She made me depend on her, adore her, need her like a fucking drug.  Mara never so much as laid a finger on me, but I would rather take a beating from everyone who’s ever hit me, all of them together at once, than let her say three words to me.  The bruises and broken bones healed, but I’m  _ still _ trying to undo the damage she did.  Her words broke me on a level so deep that I don’t think I’ll ever fully be free of it.  She’s always going to be that little voice in the back of my head telling me I’m not good enough.  And you know what the kicker is, she wasn’t even cruel about it, you know?  It’s not like she straight up told me ‘no one will ever love you but me’.  She’d say stuff like, it was too bad that no one else could see me the way she did.  Or that I didn’t need to worry that no one else would take care of me because she always would.  Sweet on the surface but poison underneath, and she kept pouring it in my ears until I believed it.  She knew  _ exactly _ what to say, what buttons to push, to get me where she wanted me.  Like she saw right through me, saw what made me tick, and used it all against me.  When I first started getting to know you, Audrey, I worried that you were the same way.  You both have that same talent for understanding all those parts of me I never thought anyone else could see.”

Audrey smoothed his hair back from his forehead and kissed him softly.  “When did you decide I was different?”

“Bit by bit.  You never tried to be the only person who cared about me, you wanted everyone else to think as much of me as you did.  You worked to mend the rift between Nate and I instead of using it.  You encouraged me to be strong, you gave me choices.  But the moment I was absolutely sure, it was when I was stuck in bed with my injuries and everyone came by to see me.  You were _happy_ that there were so many people who cared about me, you were happy that _I_ _knew_ I had people who cared about me.”

“We both were,” Nathan said quietly.  “We both hate to see you hurting, we both want you to be happy.”

“I know you do,” Duke turned his head to give Nathan a grateful kiss.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Audrey said gently, “How did things end with her, is she someone we need to worry about?”

“I left,” Duke said quietly.  “I would have torn out my own heart with my bare hands if she’d asked me to, and handed it to her with my dying breath.  But she didn’t want me to die for her – she wanted me to kill for her.  Not that she put it in so many words, of course, she was never that blunt.  She only ever hinted at it, subtle and oblique, how happy it would make her if never had to worry about that guy again.  I actually considered it,” he admitted, shame and self-loathing in his voice.  “When I found myself thinking about it, that’s when I knew I had to get out.  Not just out of that relationship, but out of the whole ugly downward spiral.  So I came back to Haven.  There are worse things than dying alone.” 

They wrapped their arms around him, reminding him silently that he wasn’t alone anymore, that he didn’t have to fear that now.

Duke sighed softly, letting out tension he hadn’t even known he was carrying.  “But you know, for all that was my rock-bottom moment, for all she left me ruined, I walked away with one thing left to me - knowing that even at my absolute worst, there was a line I would not cross.  And I know that sounds like a hell of a low bar to clear, but knowing that there was a limit, knowing there was a place I would make a stand no matter how twisted up and lost I was…that helped.  That was the foundation on which I began to rebuild myself.”


	14. Vampires and werewolves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: injury, coerced violence, forced loss of self-control, loss of agency, fanatical xenophobia, PTSD, autopsy report for an unpleasant death

Dr. Eleanor Carr proved to be every bit as practical and sensible as Gloria had said.  “So, you’re the Haven pack Gloria’s told me about.  Good to meet you, call me Eleanor.  I understand we have a dead werewolf needing an autopsy,” she greeted them briskly.

Audrey nodded.  “The wolves here think a vampire did it.  Since this incident could dissolve their alliance and probably kick off a war, we need to be sure.”

“Well, we’ll soon find out, won’t we?”

**

“So, was it blood loss?”  Nathan asked as Eleanor came out of the makeshift morgue and began washing up.

“Yes and no.  The healing factor was still in effect at the time of death, still creating new blood.  But here’s the thing, a werewolf’s healing factor is really a lot like any other animal’s, just faster.  If you or I had our throat slit, we’d pump out all our blood - fatal unless we got immediate medical attention.  If a werewolf does, first the injury seals up before a critical volume of blood is lost, then the marrow goes into overtime replacing what’s lost.  The human dies, the wolf lives.  But in either human or werewolf healing, any lost body mass that’s being replaced has to come from somewhere.  That’s why people drink extra water after a blood donation.  For most injuries, werewolf healing can work with what it’s got, making healthy tissue out of damaged tissue.  But in a case like this where there’s so much biomass lost, it needs external replacement.  Since the wolf couldn’t rehydrate, his healing factor started taking water from his other body tissues to address the life-threatening problem.  It’s not immediately apparent under the fur, but the flesh is pretty withered.  In essence, he died as much from dehydration as from low blood volume.  Not a pretty way to go, incidentally.”

“Could he have been saved?” Duke wanted to know

“If it had been possible to introduce enough fluids and iron, maybe, but it would have had to be done as the attack was occurring.”

“We should put together an emergency kit,” Audrey decided.  “Gallons of water and iron supplements.”

“And hope we won’t need it,” Duke said. 

But he wasn’t so optimistic.

**

The attack came without warning.  A flash of something too fast to see, then Duke was knocked off his feet and a good ten feet away.  He skidded to a stop on his side, the vampire crouched behind him with its fangs sunk in his neck.

Audrey and Nathan raised their guns, loaded with tracer rounds to set a fire in vampiric flesh. 

“Wait,” Duke yelled, already going pale.  “We need to know why.  Get the water and iron, we need to let them feed so we can question them.  Killing them has to be a last resort.”

Nathan swore and sprinted for the Bronco.  Audrey kept her gun trained on the vampire, gritting her teeth.

Nathan raced back and ripped the cap off a jug of water, holding it to Duke’s lips.  As the werewolf gulped it an alarming rate, Nathan looked at Audrey.  “Forget keeping the vampire at gunpoint.  One of us needs to be taking care of him while the other gets this stuff from the car.  At this rate I won’t be able to keep up on my own.”

Audrey analyzed the situation and saw the truth of it, and holstered her weapon.  She came over and opened the bottle of iron pills.  “You can run faster, you get the stuff and I’ll give it to him.”

Nathan dashed off for another run. 

Duke swallowed the pills by the handful -  a feat that would have been harmful for anyone else and must have been painful for him.  He drank the water so fast that he barely paused for desperate gasps for air.  But his color didn’t return, and he began shivering. 

“Bring blankets too,” Audrey told Nathan as he dropped off the next batch of water and iron.  There was quite a stockpile by now, and Audrey knew there wasn’t much more to bring.  Hopefully the vampire would be sated before they ran out – if they did and it came down to it, they’d kill the vampire before Duke turned into a withered husk like the other victims.  But Duke was right, this was their best lead.

But in spite of the water and iron Duke was beginning to look sickly and disoriented, and his skin was frighteningly ashen.  Audrey knew that if he passed out, they would have to end this.  She looked at the vampire.

The vampire – a young blond woman – looked back at her over Duke’s shoulder.  The eyes were brilliant crimson, almost glowing, but they still managed to express guilt, and sorrow, and pleading.  She didn’t want to be doing this, Audrey realized.  Whether her own nature was out of control or some magic compelled her, she didn’t want to hurt Duke.  “We’re trying to save you both,” Audrey said quietly.  “We don’t want to hurt you if we don’t have to.”

Gratitude and deeper guilt showed in the crimson eyes.  The vampire shifted, but before she could do anything Duke’s head came up, his eyes clearing for a moment.  He stared at the treeline, then he pushed up off the ground, falling back, covering the vampire with his own body.

His reason became clear a split second later, when a heavy wooden crossbow bolt slammed home into his ribs, where the vampire had been a moment before.

Audrey drew her gun, instinctively tracing the trajectory of the bolt.  Movement in the moonlit woods – someone turning to flee.  She fired, and a cry of pain told her the bullet hit home.  “Go,” she snapped, and Nathan took off toward the source now that he wouldn’t be in Audrey’s line of fire.

Audrey grimaced as she looked at the wound.  If Duke had been human, she would have left it in until he was at a hospital, but if Duke’s body was going to try to heal around it…”I’m going to have to pull this out, okay?” she said gentle.

“I can help,” a new voice offered.  The vampire had pulled away from Duke’s neck, her mouth bloody.  “I can hold him still.”

Audrey nodded, in no position to refuse to help.  The vampire wrapped her arms around Duke’s torso, pinning his arms in place.  Audrey pulled the bolt free, drawing a moan of pain from Duke.

Was it Audrey’s imagination, or was the wound not so quick to close as before?  “It’s okay, Duke, you’re okay, it’s over now, you can rest and heal.”  She offered him the gallon of water – their last but one – but he shook his head mutely.  He refused the iron pills too, but he didn’t look any better, grey-faced and shivering under the blankets.

Audrey looked at the vampire.  “Help me get him in the truck,” she said.  The vampire nodded, kneeling down and picking Duke up as easily as if he were a child.

Nathan reappeared among the trees, dragging a handcuffed man.  There was a makeshift bandage around his chest that looked to have been made from his shirt, and he was scowling despite the wound.  Nathan had a large pack over his shoulder that must have belonged to their perpetrator.  “How’s Duke?” he asked as soon as he was within earshot, looking worriedly at where the vampire was putting Duke in the Bronco. 

“Call Eleanor, have her meet us at the hotel,” Audrey said, not wanting to reveal too much in front of their captive. 

Nathan nodded and got the man into the back of the Bronco, climbing in afterward to keep an eye on him.  The hunter laughed viciously as they pulled back into the road.  “I know who you are.  Us real warriors, we’ve heard of you scooby-doos.  Detectives,” he snorted and spat.  “Two traitors and a dying dog.”

“You’ll want to shut up,” Nathan told him coldly, his hand tightening on the man’s arm.

The hunter learned forward to peer at Duke, until Nathan shoved him back against the seat.  “We know who you are, dog.  And you got no idea what’s coming for you.  Death is on your trail, and it won’t ever rest until it finds you.”

Nathan punched him hard enough to knock him out, furious.  “Don’t listen to him, Duke.  He’s a lunatic.  We’re not letting anyone hurt you.”

Audrey nodded, driving with disregard to minor traffic laws as the made for the hotel, though she was careful not to do anything that would jostle Duke too much.  “If I didn’t think the people of this town had first right to justice, I’d be personally making sure he pays for what he did to you.”

Duke smiled weakly.  “Thanks, guys.  Knew you’d have my back.”

**

Nathan must have called the sheriff as well as Eleanor.  Both were waiting, along with a few of the sheriff’s deputies – most likely an equal representation of wolves and vampires.  The deputies took the shooter into custody with scowls that promised no gentle treatment.

The sheriff herself followed as Audrey and Nathan got Duke upstairs, explaining the symptoms to Eleanor.  The vampire hesitated, but followed when the sheriff motioned her to join them.

“Does he need more water?  More iron?  Some other nutrient?” Nathan asked anxiously as Eleanor examined the shivering, sickly werewolf.

Eleanor shook her head.  “This is burnout shock.  Can happen when a wolf has to heal too much damage for too long.  He’ll be all right, but he needs to rest and recover.  And do absolutely nothing that requires healing for…let’s see, we just had the full moon, so take the whole month.”

“A month?” Duke croaked.

“We get to keep him safe,” Audrey said, sounding rather pleased by the idea. 

“Can definitely do that,” Nathan  agreed.

“I’m sorry,” the vampire spoke up softly.  “I didn’t want to.  He kept me locked up without food for…it must have been weeks.  I could feel myself slipping, the Hunger taking over.  I didn’t want to hurt anyone.  I was starving.  The last thing I remember was hoping someone would kill me before I could kill anyone else,” she began crying.

Audrey went and put an arm around her.  Duke struggled to sit up, helped by Nathan.  “Hey.  This wasn’t your fault, okay?” Duke insisted.  “I’m gonna be just fine.  You didn’t hurt anyone, not really.”

She looked at him miserably and shook her head. 

Duke held out a hand to her, and she reached forward and took it.  “What’s your name?”

“Vickie…”

“Vickie.  That’s a nice name,” he gave her an encouraging smile.  “Look.  Someone tried to do the same thing to me once.  They tried to take advantage of what I am to make me into a killer.  What your captor did to you – that’s a violation of everything you are.  I know.  You’re obviously a sweet, gentle person who would never ever hurt a living soul.  And you know what?  He failed.  You’re not a killer.  You never will be.  You didn’t do me any real harm, and even though there’s really nothing to forgive, I forgive you anyway.”

Vickie broke down into sobs, and Duke put an arm around her, drawing her close and murmuring comfortingly.

Audrey let Duke comfort her, and drew off to talk to the sheriff.  “The shooter wasn’t aiming for Duke, he was aiming for Vickie.”

“Trying to dispose of the witness,” Sheriff  Rafferty said grimly.  “I guess now we know what really happened to the missing vampires.” 

Audrey nodded.  “So the shooter kidnapped and imprisoned vampires until they were starved into insanity, let them loose on the werewolf population, and then killed them to get rid of any witnesses or evidence.”

“From the gear he had on him, he’s a hunter.  But that’s a hell of a roundabout way to kill off his victims.  Hunters are perfectly capable of killing werewolves as well as vampires, without all this fuss.”

“Unless he wasn’t just trying to kill his victims,” Audrey mused.  “What if his real goal was to cause exactly what happened – or almost happened?”

“You think he was trying to set the town at war with itself,” Rafferty realized.  “Damn, that’s a hell of a move.”

“Duke once said there had been known cases of hunters trying to get people to turn against an innocent community of supernaturals.  If that’s so, it seems just as plausible to take a community of mixed supernaturals and try to turn them against one another.”

“And it would explain the elaborate process.  I have a sneaking suspicion you’re right.  We’ll see if he talks – some of these people will positively brag.  If not, maybe Miss Dutton there will feel up to providing testimony.  I’ll post some of my best people here just in case our perpetrator had any accomplices that might try to come after her, or any of you.  Good job keeping her alive – and your wolf, too.  Impressive.”

“By the skin of our teeth,” Audrey smiled tiredly.  “And if you’ll excuse us for a bit, I’d like to go bond with my pack.”

**

Vickie’s adoptive father showed up not long afterwards, and their reunion was joyous and tearful.  Alec Dutton thanked them profusely to the point that even Audrey was starting to look a little embarrassed.  Although the town had arranged to pay them, he insisted on writing them a check, waving away their protests.

When it came time to leave, though, Vickie hesitated.  “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Alec asked worriedly.  “Come on, let’s go home.”

“I…that’s where I was when he…I don’t feel safe there,” Vickie whispered.

Her father hugged her tightly.  “Vickie, I’m sorry.  But we need somewhere safe to be, dawn is coming.”

“I know,” Vickie said miserably. 

“If I may,” Audrey spoke up, “Why don’t we call downstairs and see if the adjoining room is free?  I know this hotel has light-blocking shutters to accommodate vampire guests, and we can keep the doors between the rooms open so Nathan and I can stand guard.”

Alec was about to protest that they’d done so much already, but the relief on daughter’s face changed his mind.  “I’ll give them a ring.”

**

The day before they were to head home, Alec Dutton approached them.  After the standard pleasantries and thanks, he hesitated, looking a little embarrassed.  “Look, you’ve done more for us already than I have words to say, but I was hoping you could help one more time.”

“Absolutely, what do you need?” Audrey asked.

“Vickie doesn’t feel safe in Brookfield at all anymore.  I offered to buy us a new house since she’s scared of the one we have now, but she said the whole town reminds her of what happened.  She’s been holed up at the hotel the whole time.  I don’t know what to do.  I agreed we could find a new town, but I don’t know where we could go and I don’t know if that will even help.”

“There’s someone we’ve worked with who might be able to help – she’s a therapist who specializes in psychological trauma, and she works with the supernatural,” Audrey pulled out Claire’s card.  “She does long-distance sessions by phone, chat, Skype, and communication spell.  She’s been a big help to us, and a number of our clients.”

Nathan looked pensive.  “Benjy was looking for a night watchman for his dairy farm. He keeps enough livestock to support a couple vampires if you spread it around.”

“I thought he just had Mabel and Essie out behind the ice cream store?” Audrey asked.

“Those two make the milk for the ice cream store but he also has a farm that provides most of the dairy for the area.  He’s got a few hundred cows, last I checked.”

“That would do it,” Alec said, “And I know she’d feel safe if you were around.  But you’ve done so much for us already, I hate to ask.”

“You’re not asking, we’re offering,” Audrey smiled. 

“You’ll be welcome in Haven,” Nathan nodded.

“Haven, huh?” Alec looked startled, then chuckled.  “Sounds safe to me.” 

**

As they loaded the Bronco up to head home, the three of them paused for a bit to watch the town’s supernatural inhabitants going about their business peacefully once more.

“You know Duke,” Nathan said hesitantly. “I know we kind of became your pack because you had no other options.  If you’d be happier among other werewolves, we’d understand.”

“It’s not that we’d ever want to leave you,” Audrey added quickly, knowing too well how prone Duke was to leap to such a conclusion, “You said once that werewolves will form a pack out of humans only if they have no other choice.  We love you and we are absolutely your pack, but we’re human.  We can’t give you the same kind of bond that other werewolves could.  We can’t understand you, or help you understand yourself, the way other werewolves can.  If you’d be better off here, we just want what’s best for you.  Even if that’s not us,” she told him, careful to keep her expression and tone neutral so as to not influence his decision.

Duke wrapped his arms around them both, pulling them close and clinging tightly.  “You  _ are _ what’s best for me.  I don’t give a damn about human or werewolf, I could visit every pack in the entire world and I’d never find a better one than I have now.”

“Oh thank god,” Nathan blurted, the exclamation drawing relieved laughter from all three of them.  “Losing you would have killed me.”

“I don’t know what we’d do without you,” Audrey agreed, leaning in to give Duke a kiss on the cheek.

“You won’t ever have to find out,” Duke promised, feeling wonder that these two amazing, beautiful people could want him this much.  


	15. Mates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: references to past domestic abuse including sexual consent given not freely

“So how does romance work in the werewolf world?” Audrey asked cheerfully one morning, causing Duke to snort coffee out his nose.  Nathan raised an eyebrow at her, but she just smiled and continued, “I mean, do they date within their pack, or date outsiders and bring them on board?'

Duke took a moment to collect himself under the guise of clearing out his sinuses, wondering where Audrey was going with this.  “Well.  Kinda depends.  Werewolves will usually date outside their pack, for a number of reasons.  Often they prefer to date wolves from a nearby pack – werewolves aren’t generally territorial, there’s no need to be, so there’s no conflict there.  On the contrary, any unfamiliar wolf is considered a brother and a friend, unless and until they prove otherwise.  When two packs meet up it’s grounds for celebration, and certainly plenty of romantic interest.  Outside of non-pack wolves, compatible non-human races are popular.”

“Like what races?” Nathan asked curiously.

Duke smirked.  “Let’s just say that sparkly vampire would have been more likely to end up dating the hunky werewolf than the human teenage girl.”

Audrey laughed so hard she cried, and Nathan rubbed a hand over his face.  “The idea of Edward and Jacob dating hurts my brain.”

Duke grinned hugely.  “Oh my god, you know their names.  You’ve read those books!”

“I have not!” Nathan protested quickly.  Technically, it was true – he’d watched the movies before picking up the books, and wasn’t finished with the first one yet.  “Anyway, we should get back to the topic at hand before Parker hurts herself laughing.”

Audrey patted his shoulder, still laughing too hard to speak.

“Fine, fine, I can be magnanimous and let it go…for now,” Duke smirked.  “Okay, so, werewolves do sometimes date humans but obviously the whole coming out of the supernatural closet thing makes that tricky.  Humans who’re in the know are preferred but not common.  As you know, we don’t really like going around revealing ourselves, so things have to get pretty serious before  the bomb drops – like, wanting to make them part of the pack and become mates level of serious – and things can get ugly if the human in question gets upset about the wolf keeping secrets.  Also humans who aren’t in the know can be weirded out by how close the wolf is with their pack.”

“What about…not relationships?  Like…you know,” Nathan blushed, “Casual sex?”

Duke grinned.  “You’re adorable, Nate.  Werewolves do one-night stands sometimes, just like humans.  We don’t require any kind of bond or relationship for sex - although not every wolf is down with casual sex, just like not every human is.  Casual sex is never with pack members, though.  I mean, by definition it can’t be because the emotional bond is already there, but also because werewolves take in-pack romance very seriously.  We kind of have to, because if things go sour that’s bad for the whole pack.”

“Like an office romance that affects the whole office,” Audrey mused.

“I will take your word for that, but probably true - only more so.  Which is not to say we don’t form romantic bonds with packmates, but it’s a serious thing.  You don’t do that unless you’re willing to be their mate.”

“So are mated werewolves like married couples?” Audrey asked.

“…Not really but kind of, I guess?  A mate bond is serious and intense.  It’s not necessarily a lifetime commitment because let’s be real, shit happens, but it’s kind of like…you can’t see yourself ever not wanting to be with them, you know?  It’s not always sexual, incidentally.  You can have deeply committed mates who never have sex, either because they just aren’t into it or because or one or both of them fell in love outside their sexual orientation.  You can also have deeply committed mates where one or both of them have other sexual partners purely for physical gratification.  The mate bond is about love, not sex.”

“Can a wolf have more than one mate?” Nathan asked, looking at Duke intently.

Duke’s breath caught in his throat.  There was only one reason he could think of why Nathan would want to know that, but that couldn’t be right.  “Yeah, that can, it’s not common but, uh, it happens,” he managed.

Audrey reached over the table to take his hand, and Duke thought that the rising sun had never held warmth or brilliance to equal her smile.  “Do you think you might like to have us for your mates?”

Nathan took his other hand.  “Whatever your answer, we’re still your pack.  You’ll still have us, our support and bond and affection, no matter what.  You don’t have to agree to anything you don’t want, you don’t have to say yes just because you’re afraid of losing us, we’d never want that.  You don’t even have to answer right away if you need to think it over.  No pressure.”

Duke didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and he realized he was doing both.  “There will never be a world in which I don’t want you.  As pack, as mates, as anything and everything you’re willing to be.  I can’t imagine wanting anything more, anything that would make me happier, than that.”

Audrey beamed, getting up from the table and coming around to his side.  “So I guess it’s finally a not-terrible idea to kiss you, huh?”

Duke laughed as he stood and pulled her close, pouring all his love into a tender kiss.

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Nathan observed, wrapping his arms around them and nuzzling their hair as he waited his turn.

Audrey pulled away reluctantly, letting Nathan lean in and capture Duke’s lips in an equally gentle kiss.  “I once admitted that I wanted to kiss him, and we both agreed it was probably a terrible idea.  But he told me that if I still wanted to when it was a not-terrible idea, he’d be okay with that.”

“You never told me you wanted to kiss me, should I be jealous?” Nathan asked playfully as he let Audrey steal another kiss.

“I was very drunk at the time,” Audrey said laughingly between kisses.

“We both were.  Good times,” Duke grinned, happily returning each kiss.

“No, bad idea, never get drunk with Duke Crocker, you’ll wake up twenty miles from home stark naked with ‘I like to kiss boys’ scrawled on your face in magic marker,” Nathan advised.

“Spoken from sad experience, I can tell.  Tell me you got photos, Duke.”

“Of course I got photos,” Duke laughed.  “I still have them.”

“And I have the photos from that drag contest, so don’t even think about it.”

“Drag contest?” Audrey asked with delight.

“He made a really ugly woman,” Nathan grinned.  “The goatee was not helping.”

“Screw you, may I remind you that I won that contest.”

“And you both kept all these photos?  Was that sentiment or mutually assured destruction?” Audrey grinned.

“Probably some of both,” Nathan admitted.

“But you’ll show me, right?” Audrey gave them her most winning smile.

“When you show us equally embarrassing photos from your misspent youth, sure,” Duke grinned.

“Well, there was that time I went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in costume.”

“What costume?” Nathan asked.

“Lingerie.”

“That’s not embarrassing.  But by all means, show us anyway,” Duke grinned.

“I’ll see if I can dig them out,” Audrey laughed as she steered her boys over to the couch for a proper cuddle.

“Did you two plan this?” Duke asked curiously as they settled to either side of him in a comfortable pile of entwined limbs.  “Or was the werewolf romance thing an honest question and it just led to a good chance to ask?”

“I might have ulterior motives for asking about that,” Audrey grinned sheepishly.  “I was attracted to both of you pretty much from day one and I knew in both cases it was mutual.  And I would frankly have been shocked if you two claimed there wasn’t any level of attraction between you.”

“Audrey and I have talked about whether introducing romance was something we wanted and something that might work.  We were hesitant to mention it to you because we didn’t want to pressure you,” Nathan admitted.

Audrey reached up to stroke Duke’s cheek.  “We wanted to be sure you were in a good place emotionally,” she said softly.  “When we first started coming together as a pack you were so hurt and so alone, introducing romance too soon would have been taking advantage of you.”

“We want you to love us, not need us,” Nathan added.  “We’re not like Mara, we’d never want that from you.”

Duke’s breath caught in his throat and he leaned into kiss each of them fiercely in turn.  “I do, I do love you,” he said, voice choked with emotion.  “You’re so good to me.”

“Because we love you,” Nathan combed his fingers through Duke’s hair.  “We want you to be happy.”

“We enjoy making you happy, we love seeing you smile,” Audrey agreed.  “We’ll always want what’s best for you, that’s what love is.” 

“We want to be as good to you as you are to us,” Nathan smiled, a quietly adoring little smile.

“Maybe I should start upping the bar then,” Duke gave a slightly shaky laugh.

“I don’t think you could be better to us if you tried,” Audrey smiled playfully, pulling him close for another kiss. 

“Probably best you don’t try, I’m already gonna get fat off your cooking,” Nathan grinned.

“C’mon Nate, you love it, admit it,” Duke’s laugh was steadier this time.

“Of course, that’s why I’m getting fat.”

“So I guess my courtship worked.”

“Cooking for us was courtship?” Audrey smiled, charmed.

Duke gave her a sheepish grin.  “Well, yes and no.  Romance aside, I love to cook, I love to cook for people, I especially love to cook for you two.  But there might also have been some not-entirely-subconscious element in there about, y’know, showing I can provide for you.  Like a good mate does.”

“That’s adorable,” Nathan declared.

“You are a  _ very _ good provider,” Audrey assured Duke.  “A good provider and a good protector and just an absolutely wonderful mate.”

Duke hugged her tightly, wanting her to know how much those words meant to him.

“It’s true,” Nathan agreed.  “Audrey might be alpha but it’s you putting a roof over our heads and food on our plates.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Duke murmured, pulling him close for a kiss.  “You’ve done so much for me, given me everything, there aren’t words for it.  I’d do anything for you, even though I know you’d never ask me to.   _ Because _ you’d never ask me to, really.”

Audrey leaned close to kiss his cheek.  “Speaking of not asking you too much, I think that there are some things that need to be said about sex.”

“You can’t ask me for too much sex,” Duke grinned.

“Very cute,” Audrey tapped him on the nose.  “Maybe all this really is unnecessary, and certainly all of it really should go without saying, but I think it’s important that we lay it all out in the open.  So bear with me?”

“Of course,” Duke slid down to rest his head on her shoulder, looking up at her with an expectant smile.

Audrey stroked his hair, her voice gentle.  “Nathan and I don’t know – and we’re not going to ask unless you wants to tell us – how your past partners treated you and whether the abuse you survived was ever sexual.  But whether that was ever an issue or not, we want you to feel comfortable.  If you don’t want it then neither do we.”

“Not even if you think we want it,” Nathan nodded.  “Not even if you’re willing to do whatever it is on the grounds that we want it.  If you don’t genuinely want it for your own sake, then we’re not doing it.  Period, end of discussion.”

“Even if that means we never have sex.  Even if you’re never ready to take that step,” Audrey agreed.  “And this is as much for our sake as well as yours.  Both of us would feel absolutely terrible if we realized after the fact that we’d done something you hadn’t really wanted, even if you’d agreed to it.”

“Nothing that will induce guilt trips later, understood,” Duke’s words might have been humorous but his expression was serious as he nodded.

Audrey rewarded him with a kiss before continuing.  “On a similar note, you are not only absolutely allowed to speak up any time you feel uncomfortable, but actively encouraged to do so.  And that’s true whether you want things to stop, slow down, or back up to a less intense activity.”

“And when you say the word, we comply immediately,” Nathan added.  “No matter what we’re in the middle of or how far along anyone is, no questions asked and no negative consequences.  That’s still true even if you’re just in the same room watching whatever Audrey and I are doing.”

“Safewords will be respected, always good to know,” Duke agreed. 

Audrey cupped Duke’s cheek in her hand.  “You absolutely positively  _ never _ have to do anything sexual with us in order to keep us as mates or as pack.  Our feelings for you are not dependent on sexual gratification and they never will be.  It is not your job to satisfy us.”

That one hit home – Duke flinched a little, and made no lighthearted comment as he nodded agreement.  Audrey hugged him close for a moment, tucking his face against her shoulder so he wouldn’t have to see the rage in her expression.  Nathan looked just as furious even as he gently rubbed Duke’s back.  If they ever found the abuser who had made Duke feel so obligated, it would be a grim day for that person.

They held him in silence for a few minutes, waiting until he relaxed enough to stretch back out and look up at Audrey.

“Only one more,” she reassured him.  “Pain has no place in the bedroom, period end of discussion.  Rough sex and/or consensual bondage are not up for discussion currently.  If that’s something you like, we can revisit the topic once all of us are fully confident that this is something we can do in a healthy and fully consensual way, without triggering any bad memories and without an unhealthy power dynamic.”

“No arguments here,” Duke agreed.

“Basically what it all amounts to is that you set the pace,” Nathan told him.  “You choose what we do or don’t do.”

“Thanks for that,” Duke said quietly.  “I know that all that kind of stuff that ought to go without saying, but  it was good to hear it.  To know how much you mean it.  I know that’s how things should be, not all my sexual encounters were bad.  But sometimes it gets hard to remember that, and this will help.  And now on a lighter note, I would very much like to – really, truly, and for my own sake – take you both to bed.  I wanted you months ago,” he told Audrey, then turned to Nathan, “And I wanted you years ago.”

Audrey grinned as she hopped up off the couch, offering each of them a hand to pull them up.  “Really?  There was a little teenage crush going on there?”

“It wasn’t one-sided,” Nathan admitted, taking Audrey’s hand and pulling Duke up with him.  “The way I felt about you confused the hell out of me.  Scared the hell out of me too, to be honest.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Duke grinned.

They settled on the bed, Duke between Nathan and Audrey as usual, and it didn’t take long for the soft kisses to grow enthusiastic once more. 

“Will you show us your beautiful body?” Audrey murmured in Duke’s ear.  “Let us touch you all over?”

Duke made a little breathless sound of desire and nodded.  He sat up, stripping off his shirt.  “Nothing you haven’t seen before,” he pointed out with a wry grin.

“That’s different,” Nathan said, watching intently.  “Seeing isn’t the same as being shown.”

Audrey nodded and stretched up for a kiss.  “You’re choosing to give us this.  That makes all the difference.”

Duke kissed each of them in turn, touched, but all he said was, “Also we weren’t in bed about to have sex.  Context matters.”

Nathan chuckled and ran a hand down Duke’s bare chest, fingertips stroking the contours of muscle, drawing a gasp.

“Never would’ve figured you’d want this, Nate.  Always thought you were straight as an arrow.”

“Honestly, so did I.  For that matter I thought you were too.  Guess you never know.”

“Like I wanted to deal with homophobia on top of – “ he broke off in a little breathless noise as Audrey leaned in to run her tongue delicately along his collarbone.

“You two look good together,” Nathan said, rubbing this thumb over Duke’s nipple and enjoying the whine and squirm that resulted.

“You two do too,” Audrey murmured, taking a moment from her quest to find every spot on Duke’s neck and shoulder that would drive him wild.

“You two would look better naked,” Duke grinned breathlessly.  “Fair’s fair, right?”

“Sound logic,” Nathan smirked, pulling back to strip off his own shirt.  Audrey stole one more kiss before moving away to undress as well. 

Duke didn’t know where to look as he pulled off his own pants and underwear.  Both of them were stunning, gorgeous in their own way.  Damn, he thought as they returned to bed - he really did have the best of both worlds.


	16. In heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: smut smut smut smut smut endless smut and nothing but

“So, um, there’s something you should probably know,” Duke said the next morning over breakfast, reluctant but knowing better than to not get it all out in the open.  “When werewolves take mates, then once a month the mated wolves, be they male or female, they…uh…well, they go into heat.”

“Really?” Audrey asked, looking intrigued. “Even if they’re mated to non-werewolves?”

“As far as I know.  Don’t really know much about it, just heard it referenced a time or two.”

“For how long?” Nathan wanted to know.

“No more than a day, probably less.  I think.”

“So once a month we get to spend a whole day having sex with you?”  Audrey seemed pretty pleased by the idea.

“Twist my arm,” Nathan snorted. 

“What about you, is that something you’re okay with?” Audrey asked Duke gently.

“Me?” Duke blinked.  He thought ruefully that he shouldn’t be surprised by now when they showed they cared about his well-being, but somehow it caught him off guard every time, leaving him startled but touched.  “Yeah no, that pretty much sounds like the best day ever, I wasn’t objecting.  Just, y’know, in the interests of full disclosure.  If there’s something that’s gonna be a deal breaker for either of you, I want to know now.”  If he was going to lose his pack and his mates, he wanted to get it over with before he was in any deeper.

The other two heard the unspoken logic motivating him, and stepped close to wrap him in their arms.  “No deal breakers,” Audrey said firmly.  “You’re not gonna be rid of us that easily.”

“Not going anywhere,” Nathan nodded.

Duke said nothing, but hugged them fiercely tight.

**

A few weeks later Nathan and Audrey were enjoying a lazy late lunch at the Gull when both their phones buzzed with a text.

Audrey pulled hers out and frowned at the message:  “Heat started.  Understand if you want to stay away.”

Judging by Nathan’s similar expression, he’d gotten the same text.  “Why does he think this is a bad thing?  It’s not like he’d have any objections if it happened to us.”

“Yeah, but you know Duke, he’s still struggling with the idea that it’s okay to need us, that it doesn’t make him weak, that we’re not going to bail on him for asking too much of us.  Hell, he sometimes still struggles with the idea that anyone would show him basic human decency.”

Nathan scowled.  “Sometimes I want to find all the people who treated him like crap and break their faces.”

“I hear that, believe me.  But look at it this way, they made their own punishment.  They could have had everything we do, but they threw it away and now they’ll never get to know how amazing he really is.  Their loss, our gain.”

“They deserve that and worse,” Nathan muttered.  “We’re heading over now?”

“Of course.  Do me a favor and text him to let him know?”  Audrey put down some bills to cover the tab, then after a moment’s thought added a little extra to cover the rose she pulled from the vase on the table. 

**

They were pulling out of the parking lot when Audrey’s phone rang.  She saw it was Duke and put it on speakerphone.  “Duke, we’re on our way now, we’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Audrey…no.   This is…it’s bad,” Duke panted, his voice strained with need.  “Don’t know that…if you said no….if I can’t stop...”

“We’re not saying no, Duke,” Audrey said gently. 

“We want this.  Want you,” Nathan agreed, and the groan the words drew from Duke was enough to make him shift uncomfortably in his seat.

“We’re going to get you through this,” Audrey reassured him.  “We’re here for you.”

“Don’t want to…to hurt you,” Duke managed breathlessly.

“You won’t hurt us,” Audrey said firmly.  “You never have and you’re not going to start now.  Trust me, if you can’t trust yourself.”

There was a soft sigh as the words pierced through the fog of lust and tangles of self-doubt and worry.  Duke did trust her, his mate, his alpha, and for a moment he was able to relax just a little.  “Keep talking?  I need you so much.”

Audrey grinned.  “Phone sex sounds like a good way to start things off.  What do you think, Nathan, can we get him off with just our voices?”

The moan that came over the phone left little doubt of that.

Nathan squirmed again, driving a little faster than was strictly legal.

“He sped up,” Audrey told Duke, laughing.  “He can’t wait to be with you.”

“I can’t wait to be with him, with you Audrey, god this is killing me,” Duke panted.

“Not long now.  When we get there we’ll give you everything you need.  I’ve got so many ideas, I’ve been thinking about this ever since you told me about it.”

“She took a rose off our table.  I think she has plans for it,” Nathan told Duke.

Duke whimpered.

Audrey was cheerfully telling Duke exactly what those plans were when they pulled up beside the Rouge.

“We’re here,” Nathan told Duke as they got out of the car and came aboard.

“Come down to my cabin, hurry,” Duke pleaded.

As they headed inside, even their ordinary human noses picked up the scent of Duke’s heat, the musk of sex and underneath it something wild and demanding that made their blood race with eagerness.

Duke was sprawled out on his bed, naked and flushed and rumpled, tanned and inked skin shining with sweat.  It was obvious he had indeed climaxed from their phone conversation, probably more than once, but his enthusiasm wasn’t flagging in the least.  He sat up and reached for them, his eyes dilated and dark, but beneath the raw lust in them there was humiliation, and fear.

Audrey went over and wrapped him in her arms, stroking his back and kissing his mouth softly, drawing a shiver and whimper in response.  “It’s okay, we’re here, we’ll take care of you,” she murmured as Nathan settled against Duke’s back. 

“It’s okay to need us,” Nathan said quietly.  “You won’t hurt us or drive us away.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Audrey agreed.  “Just relax and let us give you what you need, okay?”

Duke made a quiet sound and rested his forehead against Audrey’s shoulder, his body going soft and relaxed in their arms.

Audrey stroked his sweat-damp hair, feeling wonder at the trust he had in them.  “That’s it, you’re okay, we’ll take care of you.”

“And enjoy every minute of it,” Nathan added.  He bent his head to kiss the nape of Duke‘s neck, causing the werewolf to shudder and gasp.

Audrey looked down in surprise at the wet heat soaking through her clothes.  She looked back up at Duke and forestalled the apologetic look dawning on his face with a kiss.  “I love how sensitive you are,” she told him, stroking his cheek.  “That’s going to make for an absolutely amazing time.”

“Definitely going to enjoy this,” Nathan agreed, nipping at warm skin, making Duke squirm and whine pleadingly.

“We shouldn’t tease, though.  At least, not yet.  Maybe after we’ve taken the edge off a bit,” Audrey grinned, standing up and shedding her clothes.

Duke watched raptly.  “Yeah, no, teasing bad, bad idea,” he said absently.

Nathan chuckled, shifting back so he could strip as well.  Clothes had no place here, and probably wouldn’t for the next few hours at least.  That sounded pretty good to him.

Duke reached out to both of them, seemed torn as to which of them to watch, clearly wanting to see and touch all of his lovers.  He made a soft sound of need as they came back together, bare skin against bare skin.  “God, I need you both right now,” he pleaded.

“Don’t plan to make you wait,” Nathan told him, reaching for bottle of lube that was already lying out.

“I’m ready, you don’t have to wait,” Duke told him, rolling over onto his hands and knees.

Nathan groaned at the thought of Duke preparing himself for Nathan, wanting to be ready for him right away, slick fingers stretching the tight ring of muscle.  “All right, let me just make sure you’re good to go,” he said breathlessly, slicking his length and pressing a slippery finger to Duke’s entrance.

“God, Nate, I need you, need your dick inside me right fucking now,” Duke panted, hips arched and legs spread.

Nathan shivered.  If he’d been in heat too, just the sight of Duke and the way he begged would have pushed him over.  “I’m hurrying, just let me get you ready.”

“Skip  it, Nate, need you too much, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Duke.  I’ll hurry but we’re doing this right.”

“I’m a fucking werewolf, I’ll heal, just gimme your goddamn cock,” Duke growled, frustrated.

“You’ll still hurt, so no,” Nathan said firmly, crooking his finger inside him in a way he knew would derail Duke’s train of thought.

Duke made a high, strangled sound, his hips jerking involuntarily as he came again.

Nathan grinned, a touch smugly, and continued stretching him.

“You boys always put on the best show,” Audrey said happily, leaning close to capture Duke’s mouth for a kiss.  He whined into it, kissing as though he needed her like he needed air.

“Audrey, please,” he gasped when they pulled apart, his voice breaking as Nathan – satisfied with his work – pulled his fingers free.

“Here, get up on your knees for a second so I can get under you,” Audrey coaxed.  “Nathan, help him out.”  Between them they got Duke kneeling upright on the bed, and Audrey settled in front of him before allowing him to come back down on his hands and knees, reaching up to pull him down atop her.

“Audrey, Nate, please, now, I need, I can’t…” Duke’s voice was rising with desperation, pleading. 

“You’re okay, Duke, we got you,” Nathan murmured, positioning himself and sliding in, drawing another loud moan and climax from the needy werewolf.

Audrey wrapped her legs around Duke’s hips, guiding him inside her.  She was glad she was on birth control and they were all clean - with such a mess everywhere, she wasn’t sure a condom would be effective.

Duke moaned softly, shivering between them, the fierce need easing for the moment at their intimate joining.  “God, you…so good, needed this so much…you’re perfect, amazing, need you, don’t stop.”

“Wouldn’t stop now for all the world,” Nathan said breathlessly, beginning to move.  He started with a slow, gentle rocking but it quickly became apparent that Duke needed more, the werewolf whining as he arched back and forth between them impatiently.  It wasn’t until they had a fast, hard rhythm going that he seemed satisfied, moaning and panting and kissing Audrey desperately.

“Please, need to feel you come, need you both,” Duke begged shamelessly, touching every inch of his lovers he could reach, one hand between Audrey’s legs to heighten her pleasure.  “Harder, Nate, fuck me harder.  Need it hard and fast and deep, need you so much.”

Nathan choked out a groan, giving him what he wanted, holding Duke’s hips so that he wouldn’t be driven into Audrey too roughly.

Audrey made an impatient little sound, arching up against Duke, not wanting him to hold back.

Duke whimpered at the intensity of it, feeling his need drawing sharply towards a climax that was more than physical.

Nathan came first, burying himself deep and biting Duke’s shoulder sharply.  Audrey followed suit just seconds later, clinging to Duke in her ecstasy.

Duke moaned low in his throat and came once more, his pleasure blinding, whiting out his entire world.

The three of them more or less collapsed onto the bed together, Nathan rolling to the side and tugging Duke with him so they didn’t crush Audrey.  Duke whimpered, trying to keep them joined physically, needing that.  By some miracle he managed it, at least for the moment, and relaxed into the mattress with a sigh.

“Better?” Audrey smiled.

“Much,” Duke murmured blissfully.  “It’s not over, I don’t think, but it’s not bad anymore.”

“You were in pretty bad shape when we came in,” Audrey smoothed hair back from Duke’s face, her expression apologetic.  “Was it painful?”

“Not yet, though I bet it would’ve been if I’d stayed alone.  Damn uncomfortable, though.  I figured going into heat would just be like being really horny, but nowhere close, I was really afraid I’d – I  _ didn’t _ hurt you, did I?” Duke looked suddenly worried.

“Not a bit, I loved every minute of it,” Audrey reassured him.  “I’d have said something if I was uncomfortable.”

Duke looked relieved at that.

“We won’t let it get that bad again,” Nathan reassured Duke, rubbing his shoulders.  “We’re here now, and we’ll take care of you.”

“And we’ll have a better idea of what to expect for next time,” Audrey nodded.

“Yeah, that’s good,” Duke mumbled.  “I didn’t know how prepared I should be, whether this was gonna resolve as soon as we had sex or just keep going.”

“If it literally lasts all day, that’s a whole new set of things to consider,” Nathan said practically.  “Making sure we have snacks and water, ways to clean up in between rounds.”

“And enough lube and condoms,” Audrey grinned.  “I think the pharmacy will give us some pretty funny looks if we lay in a 24-hour supply.”

“I can do that.  God knows everyone in this town already thinks little enough of me.  No point hurting your reputations,” Duke volunteered.

“They’re idiots to think badly of you,” Nathan said bluntly, nuzzling Duke’s neck.  He smelled so damn good. 

“Gonna get me revved up again,” Duke warned, squirming a little. 

“Stop thinking that’s a bad thing,” Nathan instructed, leaving a bite mark at the junction of Duke’s neck and shoulder.   “Want to fuck me this time?”

Duke gave a muted groan, rolling over and pressing their hips together.  Evidently, he very much did.  “But it’s too soon, isn’t it?  You won’t get off.”

“So?  It’ll still feel damn good.  Don’t have to get off to make it worthwhile,” Nathan pointed out, stretching out on his stomach.

“He’s right,” Audrey nodded.  “Sometimes it’s nice just to relax and feel good.”

Duke couldn’t take his eyes off Nathan’s long, lean body.  “If you’re sure.”

“M’ sure,” Nathan reassured him.

Audrey grinned.   “Wear a condom, Duke - I want to suck you off next.”

“God, you guys are killing me,” Duke groaned, reaching for the lube and beginning to stretch Nathan.  It was hard to hold back and wait for Nathan to be ready, but their earlier joining had abated the worst of the need, leaving his self-control secure. 

“So long’s you’re enjoying it,” Nathan smirked over his shoulder.

“So long as I’m not the only one,” Duke retorted, pulling his fingers free and rolling on a condom.

Nathan gave a throaty sound of enjoyment as Duke slid inside him, a counterpoint to Duke’s needy moan.  “Feels good, Duke.”

“You too, god Nate, you’re amazing,” Duke said breathlessly, starting to rock against him.

“You’re both amazing, so gorgeous, I love watching you two together,” Audrey murmured, sprawled over the sheets and touching herself lazily.

“Please Audrey, come up here, I wanna taste you, you look so good,” Duke begged.

“Well, since you ask nicely,” Audrey grinned.  “How’re we gonna do this?  Nathan rolls over and I sit on his face and you eat me out together?”

Duke groaned, rocking harder.  “Anyhow, just please…”

It was Nathan who shook his head.  “He’d have to hunch in order to eat you out and still be inside me.  Come kneel next to my head, I won’t be able to reach you but he can lean over a bit.”

Audrey cheerfully obliged, running her fingers through Duke’s hair as he happily set to work.  “Mm, you’re so good at that, Duke,”

“Man knows how to use his mouth,” Nathan agreed, beginning to shift restlessly.

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to give you a turn,” Audrey purred.  “In fact I’m starting to think all three of us will get a turn at everything.  You’ll love that, won’t you Duke?  The two of us fulfilling every last fantasy you’ve ever had.”

Duke moaned and shuddered, his hips pressing forward one last eager time.

Audrey pulled away, letting him catch his breath. 

“Sorry,” Duke panted.  “Neither of you got to come.”

“You say that like we’re done,” Nathan rolled over lazily, showing himself at half-mast. 

“And it felt wonderful, orgasm or no orgasm,” Audrey agreed, pulling Duke in for a thorough kiss.

“At some point tonight I’m gonna finish what I started, on both counts,” Duke promised.  “Nate, why don’t you go clean up while Audrey gets started, so I can suck you off while she’s doing it to me?”

“Twist my arm,” Nathan chuckled, heading to their bathroom. 

When he came out Audrey had coaxed Duke onto all fours and lay beneath him, already drawing moans and shivers from her needy mate as Duke returned the favor.  “Damn nice,” Nathan observed.  “What do you think, Duke, you want to focus on Audrey or use your mouth on us both at once?”

Duke lifted his head, demanding breathlessly, “Get your ass over here so I can suck your cock, Nate.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Nathan grinned, carefully kneeling astride Audrey’s legs.

Once Duke and Nathan had settled in, Audrey pulled off Duke’s length with a wet pop.  “Hey, Duke, how would you feel about me finger-fucking you right now?”

Duke moaned so enthusiastically than Nathan nearly came again on the spot.  “Think that’s a yes, Parker,” Nathan gasped.

Audrey laughed and grabbed the lube.  Probably not necessary by this point, but better safe than sorry, she felt.  Duke whimpered when she pressed her fingers inside and shuddered when she curled them, his hips rocking forward in suppressed little thrusts.

“Oh, you really like this, don’t you?” she murmured as she licked and kissed along Duke’s length.  “Maybe for next month I’ll get a strap-on so I can fuck you too.”

Duke gasped and arched suddenly, spilling over her skin as he came.

“He  _ really _ liked that,” Nathan observed, handing her a washcloth he’d brought back from the bathroom. 

“Good to know,” Audrey smirked.

**

As it turned out, Duke’s heat did last the rest of that day and well into the night.  Audrey lay half-awake, deeply relaxed and thoroughly satisfied, sleepily watching her boys as they lazily kissed and touched.

“One more time?” Duke murmured to Nathan, twined around him. 

Nathan couldn’t resist sliding inside once more, barely half-hard but still slipping in so easily with Duke so well-fucked by that point, slick and loose as if he were made to take Nathan.

“God, you’re so good, can’t get enough,” Duke moaned softly.

“Me neither,” Nathan admitted.  “Still want to keep kissing and touching you so much, the way you feel and taste and smell, you’re amazing.

“You’re downright addictive like this, Duke,” Audrey agreed with a yawn, draping herself over Duke’s back and nuzzling his neck.  “I love it.”

The three of them rocked together slowly, dreamily, barely moving, mostly just enjoying being joined.

Duke gave a hoarse, low moan and shuddered one last time, coming dry since his seed was spent.  He all but melted into the much-abused bedsheets, so blissful and dazed that he seemed almost drugged.  Audrey rolled over and grabbed a washcloth, dunking it into the now-tepid bowl of formerly hot water and handing it to Nathan, who gently cleaned Duke up before taking care of himself.  He settled down and wrapped them both in his arms, holding them close, and all three were asleep in moments.


	17. Aftercare

Duke awoke long before either of the other two, both of whom were sleeping soundly in deep contentment, judging by the looks on their faces.  Duke smiled softly at his lovers, though there was a slight edge of worry to the expression.  None of them really knew how or to what extent a werewolf’s heat affected a human mate, but they must be pretty well worn out regardless.  He slipped out from between them, gently disentangling himself from clinging limbs and enduring the sleepy whines and grumbles.  He coaxed them to roll towards the empty warm spot he’d left, and they found each other and snuggled together, their dissatisfaction subsiding back into peaceful sleep.  He grinned and kissed their cheeks gently before slipping out of the room.

After a brief shower he went to the whirlpool tub he’d installed (Nathan had ribbed him for it and he’d insisted it was a joke, but they all knew it wasn’t and honestly no one was really complaining) and started it filling, adding soothing scented oils to water hot enough to ease tired muscles.  With that started, he went out to the kitchen and started pulling out ingredients.  The previous day’s exertions had left him ravenous and he suspected that Audrey and Nathan would be too, once they woke.

He had everything almost set up and about to start cooking when he heard stirring from the bedroom.  He turned off the tub and went into the bedroom, softly kissing Audrey the rest of the way awake. 

“Hey, you,” she gave him a sleepy, adoring smile that made his heart flip over in his chest.

“Hey,” he murmured, stealing another tender kiss.  “How’re you feeling?”

“The very best kind of sore,” she grinned as she stretched, luxurious and unashamed.  “Pretty sure yesterday was my greatest day ever.  You?”

“Never better,”  Duke chuckled, relieved that she didn’t think they’d overdone it.  “I have some ideas for that soreness.  How about a long soak in the hot tub with a big amazing breakfast, followed by massage and if necessary soothing ointment?”

Audrey reached up and pulled him close for a long, lazy kiss.  “Heaven itself couldn’t make me a better offer.”

Pleased, Duke brushed a playful kiss to the tip of her nose.  “Come on then, princess,” he grinned, carefully scooping her up and cradling her against his chest as he headed for the tub.

“My handsome prince,” Audrey smiled, stroking his cheek, the warm sincerity in her expression letting him know that it wasn’t just a joke to her.

He kissed her forehead and gently lowered her into the water, enjoying her sigh of pleasure.

“Mm, that’s perfect.  You take such good care of us, Duke.  You’re a wonderful mate.”

He leaned down for a kiss, trying to show how much those words meant to him.  When he eventually pulled away, it was with reluctance.  “I’d better go get Nate, I don’t want him waking up alone.  Is there anything you need first?”

“Smart,” Audrey said approvingly.  “I’ll be fine, I’m just going to soak for a bit.”

“All right, call if you change your mind.”  With a last kiss Duke headed back down the hall. 

Nathan was still asleep, but Duke could tell that he was in the lighter stages now – his face was more mobile, his breathing not quite so deep .  He set on the edge of the bed and stroked Nathan’s hair, slow and soothing, until Nathan blinked lazily at him.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Duke gently ruffled Nathan’s hair.

Nathan grinned, tugging at Duke’s sleeve until he leaned down for a kiss.

“You feeling okay?” Duke asked as he pulled away.

“Better than okay, pretty damn great,” Nathan told him.  “Also, pretty damn psyched that we get to do this every month.”

“Not too sore?  I didn’t push you too much?  That was pretty intense,” Duke asked worriedly.  Not that he was any more worried about Nathan than Audrey, but she might have reassured him that they were fine even if she didn’t feel that way.  Nathan could always be trusted to be honest about these things.

“Intense is a good word for it,” Nathan admitted.  “I almost see what you meant about not being able to stop.  I literally couldn’t get enough of you.  Was I too rough?  I know you’ve healed now but did I hurt you last night?”

“I was feeling no pain, trust me,” Duke shook his head, looking even more worried.  Nathan hadn’t said he was okay, and if hadn’t enjoyed it then Duke didn’t know what he’d do next month.  He couldn’t possibly ask Audrey to see him through it alone.

“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked, pulling him down for another kiss.

“I’m sorry, Nate, I-“

Nathan cut him off with another kiss.  “See previous comments regarding feeling great and looking forward to doing this every month.  Yes it was intense, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it or didn’t enjoy it.  Which, just to be clear, I did very much like and enjoy it.  You didn’t push me too hard, and I’m no more sore than I was after that time you made me try yoga.  Last night was amazing, I loved it, I can’t wait to do it again.  Now stop worrying.”

Duke laughed sheepishly.  “Okay, point taken.  Come on, I filled the whirlpool for you, Audrey’s already in there.  You two soak and rest while I clean up in here and make breakfast, then I’ll come feed you, okay?” 

“Breakfast sounds good,” Nathan grinned, his stomach rumbling agreement as he got out of bed.  “How many calories d’you think we burned?”

“I think the technical term is a ‘fuck-ton’,” Duke laughed, playfully swatting Nathan’s ass.

**

Duke changed the sheets and mattress pad and opened the portholes to air out the bedroom before heading into the kitchen.  He rather wanted to spoil his mates with an elaborate full-scale brunch, but he remembered how hungry Nathan already was and contented himself with quickly whipping up some pancakes, eggs and bacon – plenty of all of it.

Audrey and Nathan were stretched out in the tub when he went in, Audrey cuddled up against Nathan’s chest, their eyes closed as they talked quietly.  The quiet contentment in their faces made Duke’s heart ache with happiness.

“Hey, you two,” he smiled.  “Breakfast.”

“That smells amazing,” Audrey said happily, sitting up.

“Come join us,” Nathan invited.

“In a minute.”  Duke dished three generous portions, handing Audrey and Nathan their plates and making sure the rest of the food was within easy reach before stripping off his clothes and joining them in the tub.  He wasn’t sore the way they were, but the hot water still felt wonderful.  He settled in beside them and for a few minutes there was companionable silence as they focused on replenishing their energy. 

Eventually Audrey and then Nathan put aside their plates, leaning back with satiated sighs.  Duke finished his plate and set it aside as well.  He could have gone for another serving or two - apparently being in heat took a lot out of a werewolf - but he had other things on his mind.  He took a jar of soft soap he’d acquired in Cairo, rolling it in his hands as he gave his mates a hesitant look.  “I thought…if you wanted…I could bathe you two?”

Audrey leaned forward and gave him a kiss.  “That’s really sweet of you to offer, but you don’t have to go that far, we’re not that sore.”

Duke shook his head.  “I want to.  It’s…something I always wanted to do for someone who was really special to me.  If you think it’s weird that’s okay, I just…I’m not just offering for your sakes.”

“We’d be honored,” Nathan said, sitting up to kiss him as well.  “Is this something we can do for you, too, or is this something where you want to pamper us?”

Duke considered that.  “I’d enjoy it, but maybe not today?  I just…I want to take care of you both today.  I don’t know if that has to do with the heat or not, it’s just…important to me.”

“If it’s important to you then it’s important to us,” Audrey smiled and kissed him.  “We’ll save pampering you for another day.”

Duke looked relieved as he leaned in to kiss them both.  “Thank you for understanding.”  


	18. Sins of the Fathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Mention of past child death (canon compliant), self sacrifice with mild suicidal overtones

Duke knew trouble had found them even before he turned around, leaving his key in the lock of the closed Gull.  Nathan and Audrey had their weapons out and trained on the man who stood across the parking lot.  A hunter, without question - and a skilled one, to have gotten so close to a werewolf without being noticed.  He was taller even than Nathan and Duke, far heavier with muscle, and carried an arsenal of terrifying weaponry.  His weapons weren’t drawn…yet.  It didn’t matter, Duke knew.  A hunter at that skill level could draw and fire before even a werewolf’s reflexes could dodge.

“Came to the wrong town,” Nathan said shortly.  “Best turn around and head right back out.”

“Hunters aren’t welcome in Haven,” Audrey agreed.  “I don’t know what you came for, but whatever it is, you’re not getting it.  Not if you want to leave here alive.”

“A price I’d pay to see the end of the Crocker line,” the hunter retorted.  “The world will be a better place without those monsters.”

Nathan and Audrey inched closer to Duke, glaring murderously.  “You don’t touch one hair on his head.” Nathan growled.

“You don’t know anything about him.  He’s not a monster, he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Audrey added.

“His brother was the same - at first.  I tracked Wade, I saw the horrors he left in his wake.  And Wade Crocker was a toothless puppy compared to his father.  Sooner or later, blood will out.”

Duke flinched, a tiny wounded sound escaping his throat.

“You shut your damn mouth,” Nathan spat. 

“He turned his back on that, he bent over backwards to be a better person.  He’s nothing like Wade and he’s damn sure nothing like his father,” Audrey snarled.

“Do you even know?  Do you know the first thing about Simon Crocker?  My Lizzie was six years sold.  Six!  And that monster stood over her bloody ruin and I swear he laughed at me!  That animal,” he drew his weapon, a heavy ugly gun, and pointed at Duke, “is the last of them.  And now that I’ve tracked him down, the Crocker curse ends today.”

Audrey opened her mouth to reply, but Duke stepped out from behind her and Nathan.  He rested a hand on their shoulders and murmured, “Wait here.”

Duke went forward, his hands held up in a gesture of surrender.  Ten feet from the hunter he stopped, and got to his knees.  “What happened to your daughter was more than a tragedy, it was an abomination,” he told the hunter quietly.  “What my father was, what my brother became, was terrible and monstrous and it is better that they’re dead.  And if that’s the road I’ll one day go down, I’d rather die first.  So if it will bring you peace for your daughter’s loss, then go ahead and end me.  I won’t fight.”

“Duke, no!”  Audrey and Nathan protested with one voice and sprang to shield him with their bodies. 

Nathan glared at the hunter.  “Do you even know why Wade Crocker isn’t still murdering people left and right?  It’s because Duke stopped him!  It damn near killed him, but he wasn’t going to let his brother hurt any more innocents.”

The weapon didn’t waver.  “You’re his pack, you’d do anything to protect him.”

“Ask the town’s medical examiner,” Audrey said.  “She’s not his pack, but she was there that night.  She treated his wounds, she saw Wade’s body.  She took photos, and if you’re any kind of competent hunter you’ll see that no human made those wounds.”

“Guys, it’s okay, you don’t have to do this,” Duke protested.  “I’m serious, I’d rather be dead than be like them.  Maybe this has to happen.  If it keeps me from hurting anyone, I’m okay with it.”

“Duke, I won’t say this often, but shut the hell up,” Nathan growled.  “You won’t even kill a goddamned spider, you’re not going to become some bloodthirsty monster.”

“Nathan’s right.  The day I met you he told me that he’d never known you to hurt anyone, even as a human.  You have us, your pack, to anchor you and keep you from ever going mad with the pain of solitude.  You will always have us.  And we are absolutely not letting you sacrifice yourself.  If this guy wants to kill you, he’s going to have to climb over our dead bodies to do it.”  Audrey turned to the hunter.  “Look, if you’ve been tailing us then you know what we’ve been doing.  Rescuing children.  Solving murders and bringing killers to justice.  Negotiating peace and preventing violent conflicts.   _ Saving lives _ .  None of that would be possible without Duke.”

“Yeah, I’m sure having a werewolf at your back helps you terrorize people into doing what you want,” the hunter snorted.

“You’re an idiot,” Nathan told him bluntly.  “Do you know what he does when we have to restrain a culprit?  He sits on them!  He doesn’t kill, he doesn’t even threaten.  Even when whoever or whatever we’re trying to apprehend is attacking him viciously, he just holds still and he  _ takes _ it rather than fighting back.  Force is an absolute last resort for him, to the point where we actively worry about his preference for being hurt over hurting others.  He’s terrified of hurting anyone, he literally has nightmares about becoming like his father or brother.”

Audrey nodded.  “Duke isn’t the muscle, he’s not our thug.  We’d never ask that of him.  Someone did once, and he decided he’d rather die than become a killer.  He’s not what you think, he never will be.”

Duke reached out and wrapped his arms around them, pulling them close.  He looked at them with love and sorrow, then looked over the back of their heads and mouthed to the hunter, ‘do it’, and closed his eyes.

**

The hunter watched as the two detectives pleaded for Crocker’s life, and Crocker offered it up willingly.  At this range the shot was possible, he could put the silver alloy bullet between the wolf’s eyes without touching either of the humans.

And yet…this was the furthest thing from what he’d expected when he’d come hunting the last Crocker.  Simon had been a monster, barely anything human left in him.  And Wade – it had been sheer luck that had left the hunter alive when he’d finally caught up to Wade Crocker, following the trail of bodies in his wake.  They were worse than animals – they had delighted in the bloodshed, the sheer sickening brutality of it.  His fights with them had been vicious, violent, horrific, and he’d survived only by the skin of his teeth.  There had been few words exchanged before their battles, only the wolves’ taunts over their victims the hunter had failed to save.

But this one, the youngest Crocker, acted like a person still and not a monster.  Had the curse missed him somehow?  Had it just not had time to take him, as he himself claimed to fear?  Or was this one just a very good actor?

Admittedly, it was hard to picture the other Crockers offering their lives in penance for Lizzie’s, even as a ruse.  Certainly no one else would have wanted to protect either of them, much less formed a human shield between them and danger.

It wasn’t the first time he had seen someone try to do that.  He couldn’t help remembering the fae child running out from hiding, crying to him not to hurt her father, trying to cover the bloodied adult fae with her thin little body.  Her terrified father had tried to push her away, frantically telling her to run, desperately begging the hunter to spare her, to take him instead.

It had been so like what the hunter himself had done when the werewolf came that he’d staggered away, doubling over to throw up into the bushes at the horror of how like Lizzie’s killer he’d become.  It had been what had opened his eyes, what had driven him to learn the difference between supernaturals and monsters, and to take up his weapons only when real dangers threatened innocent lives. 

And now all these years later, the son of the monster that killed the hunter’s child offered up his own life in return while his loved ones tried to save him.

They’d come full circle – it was up to the hunter to choose how to close it.  Love and mercy and humanity weighed against a legacy of murder and madness.

Could it be different this time?  His research had never tied an unusual amount of deaths to the youngest Crocker’s whereabouts.  The Haven murders hadn’t started until Wade had come to town, and they’d ended when Wade disappeared.  And the woman was right, he  _ had _ heard about the cases they’d solved as he’d followed in their wake, and despite what he’d said, the people they’d dealt with had had nothing but good things to say about all three of them. 

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask this medical examiner what she saw that night.  Maybe Crocker having a pack would make the difference this time. 

Maybe this could end in forgiveness, and not tragedy.

Decision made, the hunter holstered the weapon.  “You ever look into whether you were adopted?” he grunted.

The werewolf blinked at him, blankly confused, but the blond woman was grinning.

“Came to your senses?” she asked him.

“Came to the conclusion that it’s not the right time to be making that call,” he corrected.  “Think of this as probation.  I need to stick around for a while to keep an eye on things.”

The two humans looked angry but oddly, Crocker seemed relieved.  “Believe it or not, I’m actually glad of it.  It’ll give me peace of mind to know that if I do go off the rails, there’s someone who can and will stop me before I can hurt anyone.”

“For god’s sake, Duke, you’re not going to hurt anyone!  Stop saying that,” the clean-cut brunette said irritably.

“Well, you go find somewhere to stick around, then,” the blond told him.  “We’re going to go be very glad to all be alive.  Excuse us,” she wrapped an arm around each of them and drew them away.

**

The next day, there was a knock at the door of the hunter’s room at the B&B.  A glance from the corner of the curtained window showed the blond woman from yesterday - Audrey Parker, according to his research.  He didn’t see any trace of the other two, but he stood to one side as he opened the door so as not to make a target of himself.  “Come in.”

She did, walking confidently but glancing around the room with the assessing look of a trained professional.  Former FBI, if he recalled correctly.  And she got right to the point. 

“I’m guessing you’re an experienced hunter and not just a man with a grudge.”

“Yes.  And?”  He too could be blunt.

“And I need to know whether that’s going to be a problem.”

“I already said I was going to give Crocker a fair chance.”

“I’m not here about that.  Haven isn’t just a name.  We have residents that are not going to be very happy about having a hunter in town.”

His eyes narrowed.  “You’re saying Haven is a supernatural enclave?”

“No.  The population is still almost entirely human.  Duke was, to our knowledge, the only non-human in town up until we started the agency.  Since then our reputation has encouraged certain people to relocate here.  But even one person at risk would be reason enough to for me to be having this conversation.  I will not stand for you menacing innocent refugees, even ones who aren’t human.  If this is going to be a problem then you’ll need to leave.  You can figure out some other way to handle this ridiculous probation.”

“If your people are peaceful then they aren’t in any danger from me, and you can tell them that.  I only go after supernaturals who pose an actual threat.”

“Duke’s never hurt anyone in his life and you went after him.”

“That’s different, and apparently he himself agrees.  Just because he hasn’t hurt anyone doesn’t mean he won’t.  The Crocker curse is in his blood.”

“Your bullshit prejudice and encouragement of his insecurities and deepest fears is a conversation for another time – and we  _ will _ have that conversation, believe me.  Right now I want to know why I should have any confidence whatsoever that you’re not going to wipe out every non-human you come across.”

He sighed.  “Because that’s how I used to be.  When I first started out, as far as I knew everything inhuman was a monster.  And I wasn’t in much of a frame of mind to consider otherwise.  I was out for revenge, pure and simple.”

“And that’s changed?”

“Suffice to say, I had my eyes opened.  My job is to protect people.  If supernaturals are hurting humans, I stop them.  Otherwise, it’s none of my concern.  I don’t apologize for or regret what I do in defense of innocent people, but I don’t kill needlessly.”

She gave him a long, considering look, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew everything he’d left unsaid.  “Here’s the deal.  You stay in Haven, you protect and defend the innocent – even non-human innocents, even from fellow hunters, if need be.  If there is a genuine and active threat, human or otherwise, then we will support you in containing the threat – non-lethally if at all possible.  At all other times, humans and supernaturals coexist peacefully and you keep that peace.  That’s how Haven works.  Is that acceptable?”  She didn’t add ‘or do we have a problem?’ but the hunter heard it nonetheless.

“Acceptable,” he decided after a moment’s consideration.

“Good,” she held out her hand.  “Audrey Parker.  Welcome to Haven.”

“Dwight Hendrickson.”  Her hand was tiny in his, but her grip was fierce enough to let him know she hadn’t forgiven him for threatening Crocker.  He felt certain that the werewolf wouldn’t be the only one observed for threat assessment.

Interesting town, Haven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that was meant to end the original sequel and kick off the third fic : )


	19. Haven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: mention of attempted rape, kidnapping

Audrey was alone in the agency’s office, with Duke downstairs at the Gull and Nathan helping Dwight at the station, when a soft knock came at the door.  A little surprised that anyone would bother knocking at an office door, she called for the visitor to enter.

It turned out to be a small family – a man and a woman in perhaps their early thirties, and two young children.  They would have been strikingly good looking if not for the fear and distress on their faces.  The man wore a large pack over his shoulder, clutching the strap with a white-knuckled grip.  Audrey gave them a reassuring smile and lent a soothing pitch to her voice as she greeted them.  “Welcome, feel free to have a seat.  Can I get you some water or coffee?”

“No thank you,” the man said, guiding his family to the little sofa and settling down with his arms around them protectively.  The woman leaned against his chest and reached over to take her children’s hands, watching Audrey with anxious hope.

Audrey pulled up a chair, careful to leave a little distance and keep her posture non-threatening.  “How can the Three Gulls Agency help you?”

“We’ve heard about what you do.  Helping people like us.  People who can’t turn to….to human law enforcement,” the man said.  He put a slight emphasis on the word ‘human’ that made it clear they were not.

Audrey nodded.  “We understand that a lot of the time non-humans have nowhere to turn when they are wronged.  When there’s crime among a non-human community, we investigate the case and bring the perpetrator to justice.”

“And this is where you’re based?  You live here?”

Audrey felt a certain wariness at that question.  But they made no secret of it, and she nodded.  “Yes.  We live here in Haven and this is our primary base of operations.  We travel to cases as necessary, but between times we’re here.  When we’re gone we have an ally who keeps the peace here, a former hunter who’s chosen to protect innocents regardless of whether or not they’re human.”

The woman spoke for the first time, her voice soft and fragile.  “This is a safe place?  Haven is not just a name?”

“It is as safe a place as we can make it,” Audrey reassured her.  “Is someone pursuing you?”

“Not anymore,” the man said grimly.  “We are selkie.  You are familiar with our kind?”

“The seal-people who shed their skins to walk in human form on land,” Audrey nodded.  She had a sinking feeling in her stomach – she could guess where this was going.

“And without those skins we cannot return to our native sea,” he nodded, his expression stormy.  “You have heard the folktales, no doubt, about men who steal the skins of selkie women to force them into marriage.  They are no myths, not even in this day and age.  My Bridget’s pelt was taken by such a brute.”

“I am so sorry,” Audrey said quietly.  “That’s a terrible thing you went through.  How can we help you feel safe again?”

The woman – Bridget – gave her a weak but grateful smile.  “My Jaime said you would help.  Thank you.”

“I was able to track them and find Bridget before the man could do more than bring her back to his home.  It was not all he intended to do to her, however.  I put a stop to it, and to him.  I have no regrets about defending my wife.  Is that a problem?” Jaime said bluntly.

Audrey shook her head.  “If you had to resort to lethal force in order to free your wife from a kidnapper, as far as I’m concerned that would fall under self-defense.”

Bridget sighed and looked relieved, and even the children relaxed.  Jaime nodded gravely.  “Your understanding is appreciated.  We came here because we no longer felt safe where we were living.  We thought that a place where there are people like you, who fight for people like us and right the wrongs done to us – perhaps that is a place where selkie can live in peace.”

“We’ll do our best to make it so,” Audrey promised.  She took a couple of their business cards, and after a moment’s thought put them in a zip-top bag and sealed it.  “You can always contact us, or our ally Dwight Hendrickson at the police station, if you need help.  My partner Duke knows these waters like no one else, if you need information about secluded places or good fishing areas or boating lanes to avoid.”  

“If there’s an uninhabited island with a rocky enough shore that ships cannot approach, it would make a good home for us,” Jaime told her.  “Perhaps you might ask him on our behalf.  My Bridget is yet uncomfortable around strange men, and I dare not leave my family alone.”

“Of course,” Audrey said immediately.  “I’d be happy to pass that along.”

Jaime nodded and stood.  “We’ll keep to the cove for now,” he gestured to the little inlet behind the Gull.  “We’ll come back when next your partners are not here.”

“I’ll make that tomorrow,” Audrey smiled.

Bridget reached out and took her hand.  “Thank you,” she said softly, “for giving us a haven.”


	20. The Guard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: references to past sexual assault/rape, kidnapping, and loss of agency; struggling survivor, self-deprecation, self-hate, very slight self-harm

“Hey, Alec,” Nathan slowed his truck to greet the vampire as he and Audrey cruised along Main Street for their night patrol.  “How are you taking to life in Haven?”

“It’s a good town.  Good people, here.  Not exactly the big city but the internet’s wonderful that way.”

Audrey grinned, amused.  “What, no centuries old leather tomes and political machinations to while away eternity?”

Alec grinned back.  “You watch too many movies.  Vampires keep up with the times – protective camouflage, you know.  Plus it’s something to do.  Especially when you’re a night watchman for a dairy farm where the biggest disturbance is most likely an optimistic coyote.  Thank mankind for smartphones!”

“Definitely sounds like a must,” Audrey agreed.  “How’s Vickie settling in?”

Alec’s smile faded.  “Well, she likes the place and agrees she’s probably as safe here as she could be anywhere.  And Claire’s been great, I think the sessions are really helping.  I’m glad there’s someone like her to help people like Vickie.”

“But?” Nathan guessed.

“She’s still afraid to leave the house on her own.  I can’t blame her after what happened, not one bit.  But she’s stopped asking me to go with her, even on nights I’m not at the farm - says she feels like she’s being a burden.  But she can’t spend eternity cooped up in there.  She’s frustrated, and she’s being real hard on herself.  I just don’t know what to do.”

“We could swing by, time to time,” Nathan offered.  “We’re gone a lot but when we’re in town we can help.”

Alec looked torn.  “You’ve already done so much, I hate to ask that of you.”

Audrey looked thoughtful.  “You know…we know someone who’s putting together a group to protect people – both human and supernatural - in Haven.  The growing supernatural population’s leaving human law enforcement at a disadvantage, and there are so many supernaturals that need our help that we can’t be here all the time.  The Guard is meant to be a more permanent solution, and it’s going to have both human and supernatural members to keep a fair and balanced perspective.  Providing a protection escort for supernaturals would be fall within their responsibilities.  If Vickie would be okay with that, of course.”

Alec looked hesitant.  “If you’re sure it would be someone trustworthy.  I’d have to meet this person and be satisfied of their intentions.  And Vickie would need to feel safe with them.  That…that’s asking a lot, I know.”

“Not too much, though.  We’ll talk to Dwight, see if he’s got anyone on board who’s capable and trustworthy but not too intimidating,” Nathan offered.

“Thank you, I think that would be a huge help,” Alec looked carefully hopeful.

**

The next day at work, Nathan called Dwight into his office.  The big hunter was quickly moving up the ranks of the Haven PD, with an easygoing affability that managed to smooth most of the feathers he was ruffling in the process.  “How’s the Guard coming?”

“It’s shaping up.  Got a few fair-minded hunters on board, and some volunteers from the supernatural community have come forward wanting representation in the Guard.  It’s a little tense, not a lot of trust going on, but that’ll come in time with everyone working together to protect people no matter their species.”

“Well, we might have a good start for you.  How would you feel about finding someone for escort missions?” Audrey asked.

“Sounds doable.  Who’re we protecting, and why?”

“Vickie Dutton.  No danger that we know of, she was attacked by a hunter and needs to feel safe again.”

“That hunter anyone we need to worry about?” Dwight asked.

Audrey shook her head.  “We saw justice done.”

“Good to know.  I’m thinking Jordan will be good for the protection escort.”

“Jordan?  As in Jordan McKee, your second in command?” Audrey’s eyebrows rose into her hairline.

“We were thinking someone a little more sympathetic,” Nathan said bluntly.  “Won’t help to scare Vickie all the more.”

Dwight chuckled.  “Can’t blame you for thinking it.  But she’s actually surprisingly good with trauma victims.  I get that this is a sensitive thing and that you didn’t turn to the Guard just for muscle.  Trust me, it’ll be a good fit.”

“Well…Vickie’s father wants to meet whoever it is and make sure he trusts them and Vickie’s okay with it.  We could at least see how it goes,” Audrey said doubtfully.

**

Jordan’s first impression of Vickie Dutton was that of a porcelain doll.   Tiny and pale, blond curls framing the pretty face so carefully made up, delicate and heartbreakingly fragile.  She sat beside her father quietly, eyes mostly downcast, sneaking timid glances at her potential protector.

“I have to admit this is not quite what I had in mind,” Alec said doubtfully.  I was thinking of someone more…”

“More respectable?” Jordan suggested curtly.  “With all due respect, your opinion of me doesn’t matter.” She turned to Vickie.  “The only person here whose opinion matters is yours.  If you need to feel safe, then you need to see that I’m big and bad enough to kick the ass of whatever is making you feel  _ un _ safe.  If that involves coming in here looking like a biker bitch from hell and horrifying your very respectable father, so be it.”

Vickie giggled – just faintly, a little ghost of laughter.  “I don’t mind that you look that way,” she admitted.  “It wouldn’t really make sense if you were…if you were like me.”

There was a distinct note of self-deprecation there at the end that Jordan didn’t miss.  “Good to know my look served its purpose.  If you’re okay with it, I’d like to talk with you one on one.”

Vickie nodded.  “We can go to my room.”

Alec looked after them as they left.  “I take it back, she can look however she wants in my book,” he told Audrey.  “Vickie hasn’t smiled once since the attack, not until today.”

“I admit I was skeptical when Dwight suggested her,” Audrey admitted.  “But it looks like maybe he knew what he was talking about.”

**

Jordan paused in the doorway of Vickie’s room.  She’d expected lots of pink and lace and stuffed animals, but what greeted her instead was art – sketches and paintings, portraits with remarkable character, still lifes with astonishing detail, abstract flows of shape and line and color.  But the most remarkable were the landscapes, night scenes that were not darkness but filled with a hundred different subtle colors.  The nuances would have been lost on human eyes in real life, and she wondered what Vickie was to see the world this way. “These are really good,” she told Vickie, allowing her honest admiration to show.

Vickie blushed prettily.  “I’ve had plenty of practice, is all.  But I enjoy it.  It’s not just about recreating the image, it’s about capturing what made the image worth depicting the first place.”

“Best description of art I ever heard.  I never had much use for it, but…” Jordan paused at a painting where a river’s rapids shattered moonlight into myriad shades of silver, cradled by the living shadows of the trees on the bank.  “I can see what you mean.”

Vickie smiled shyly and perched on the edge of the bed.  “You wanted to talk to me privately?”

“Actually I thought that you might have things that you wanted to ask me - or tell me - without your father there.”  Jordan caught Vickie’s anxious gaze.  “There’s no judgement here.  You can talk to me about anything, ask any question, without fear.”

“Thank you,” Vickie said softly, relaxing a little.  “Did they…tell you about me?”

“They didn’t offer any details, either about what happened or about you, and I didn’t ask.  That’s yours to keep or share as you choose.  I was told only that you were attacked by a hunter and need to feel safe.”

Vickie dropped her eyes.  “I’m sorry.  It’s stupid, I know.  I keep telling myself I’m safe here.”

“It’s not stupid,” Jordan said firmly.  “It is the most natural reaction on earth.  This is not a situation where logic matters – no matter how safe you are or how capable of defending yourself you might be, it’s not possible to just up and decide to get over it.”

“I wish I could,” Vickie whispered.  “I’m so tired of being scared.  I’m so tired of…of feeling like it’s my fault.  It’s  _ not _ my fault, I  _ know _ that, he did this to me and it’s no one’s fault but his, I know that and I tell myself that every day, every single day, but I can’t  _ believe it _ .”  Tears dripped down miserably flushed cheeks, the gentle voice was rough with self-loathing, delicate fingernails dug into flawless skin of her hands.

Jordan reached out, slowly enough that Vickie could move away if she chose.  She didn’t, and Jordan took the slender hands in her own gloved ones.  “You will,” she said quietly.  “It’ll take time, healing always does, but you’ll get there.  I know right now it feels like nothing is ever going to get better.  I know because I’ve been there, Vickie.  I was scared too, for a long time.  And angry, at him and at myself and at the whole damn world.  So trust me when I say that you’re not stupid or weak or anything like that.  You’re damn brave to be able to admit that you don’t want to do this alone.  That’s something I wasn’t able to admit, even to myself, for a long time - and trust me, you’re better off for it.  There’s no shame in a drowning person reaching for a life preserver, especially when they’re fighting to swim a mile back to shore past rocks and riptides.  You are a  _ survivor _ , Vickie.  And you are going to beat this.”

Vickie lifted her head, her soft mouth firming.  “I  _ am _ ,” he told Jordan, squeezing her hands.  “I’m going to heal, no matter how long it takes.  I’ll keep telling myself it’s not my fault, a hundred times a day if I have to, until I believe it.  I’ll keep going out, even if I need you there, until I’m not scared anymore.  I’ll keep trying even when I’m exhausted and hopeless and it all feels so pointless.  Because he doesn’t deserve to ruin me, and he  _ can’t have that _ .”

Jordan felt tears spring to her eyes as she gripped Vickie’s hands tight.  This was no beautiful broken doll but a wounded soul of steel, trying so hard to be strong, fighting so hard to heal.  In that moment Jordan knew, down to her very bones, that anyone who tried to hurt Vickie would die screaming as their life drained away to the hunter’s curse, and Jordan would not have a single solitary regret.

**

They went out for coffee, that first night, and talked about healing and about everything but healing.  At the end of the night as they drove back, Vickie said softly, “Thank you.”

And just where Jordan’s sleeve had carelessly ridden up a little to show bare skin there was the gentle touch of a hand, and Jordan nearly wrecked the car.

“I’m sorry,” Vickie said the second Jordan got the car under control.  “I should never have touched you without asking, I should have realized, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not that, it’s okay,” Jordan reassured her quickly, trying to smile comfortingly in spite of her astonishment.  “It’s nothing to do with that, it’s…well, a long story, really.”

Vickie gave her an uncertain smile.  “I’d listen.  If you wanted to share, of course.”

“I don’t mind sharing,” Jordan said slowly.  “But it might make you uncomfortable.  With me.”

Vickie was quiet for a long moment, looking at Jordan.  Even watching the road, Jordan could feel her thoughtful gaze. 

“You’re a hunter, aren’t you?” she asked finally.

“I am,” Jordan admitted.  She squashed the impulse to insist she was nothing like the man who’d attacked Vickie – this was something Vickie needed to accept or not on her own.

“You’re not going to hurt me.  If you wanted to, you could have already,” Vickie sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as reassure Jordan.

“I’m not,” Jordan agreed neutrally.

“You don’t know…you don’t know what I am.”

“No.  But I know you’re supernatural, and it’s still my job to protect you.”

“Why would you protect someone like me?”

Jordan was quiet for a moment, looking for a way to explain.  “Because I became a hunter for the wrong reasons, and I know that now.  I was young and angry, scared and hurting, and I wanted to be able to defend myself.  My firearms instructor was a hunter, he worked at the range as his day job.  He told me that there were worse threats to humanity than I could imagine, but that he could teach me to protect myself and others.  And protecting myself was all I cared about, back then.  I told myself that what I was doing was necessary, that they would get me if I didn’t get them first.  I was too scared and alone and angry to stop and think if that was really true.”  She took a deep breath.  “I don’t know how many of the supernaturals I killed were a genuine threat, and how many were innocent.  But it’s a sure bet that they didn’t all deserve to die.  I’m a murderer, Vickie, and I understand if you’d rather I drop you off at home and send someone else next time.”

“No,” Vickie shook her head.  “I came too close to being a murderer myself to think less of you.  And if I hadn’t had my father and Audrey and the others there right after, I might have done anything to feel safe too.  Even kill.”

Jordan couldn’t help but wonder how sweet little Vickie, even with her inner core of fire, had come close to murder.  But she wasn’t about to ask – if Vickie wanted her to know, she’d tell her.  “In any event, I was lucky enough to eventually meet some good people who helped me get my head on straight.  The guy who’s forming the Guard is one of them, he talked me into joining up.  Said Haven was gonna be a different kind of place, where humans and supernaturals can coexist, where it’d be our job to protect innocent people from threats – no matter whether it was humans or non-humans in danger or as a threat.  Ten years ago I’d have laughed at the idea of such a place and such a job, much less me joining up and protecting supernaturals.  But maybe it’s time for something like this.”

“I’m glad it exists.  Haven, and the Guard.  Are they all people like you?”

“Nah, about half are supernaturals – Dwight says it has to be that way, says no one will trust a guard that’s all hunters.  Can’t say I could blame them.”

“Me neither,” Vickie agreed, and indeed she looked a little relieved.

“Anyhow,” Jordan continued as she pulled into Vickie’s driveway and parked, turning to face her.  “That’s kind of only vaguely related to the actual answer to your question.  Back when I was…not open-minded about supernaturals, a dying fae put a curse on me.  ‘Thou who lusts to destroy life, shalt have thy fill and more.’  I didn’t know what he meant then, but I found out pretty quickly.  My touch drains life.  Even an accidental, momentary brush against my skin is agonizing and debilitating, and more than a few seconds is lethal to almost everything.  But you…you didn’t even flinch.”

Vickie gave her a shy little grin, showing off fangs as slender and delicate as the rest of her.  “Well…no life, no problem, I guess?”

Jordan McKee laughed, and held out a hand for her to take.


	21. Doggie daycare

“I thought Duke said he’d meet us at the park,” Nathan frowned slightly, a crease of worry in his brow.

“He did,” Audrey looked around.  Picnickers, joggers, older kids playing catch and soccer, younger ones on the playground… “What is that?” she squinted at the playground.

“New piece of equipment?  Kids sure seem to love it,” Nathan observed.  “Didn’t know they were adding anything, though.”

“I can’t even see it, whatever it is, there’s so many of them,” Audrey couldn’t help smiling a little as they headed toward the new attraction. 

The children on the playground were an interesting mix of human and non-human.  A fae toddler rode the shoulders of an ogre child, laughing.  A happily growling werewolf cub was playing tug of war with a giggling centaur foal’s tail.  A dwarf-daughter was making a toy out of twigs and leaves for a delighted naga hatchling.  Goblin babes cheered at a young shapeshifter’s impressions.  A sasquatch youth and a wispy little dryad solemnly discussed their favorite trees. 

The main attraction, however, was clearly whatever was obscured by a pile of laughing, squirming kids.  One of the selkie children managed to squirm to the top of the pile and sat, bouncing up and down up so that his little backpack bobbled wildly.  “Giyyup, Duke!”

Nathan started laughing.

“Oh no, Duke,” Audrey said - but she too was laughing, her eyes crinkled with mirth.

There was a shifting beneath the pile of children, and a banshee baby rolled laughing off of Duke’s head as he carefully lifted it and gave Nathan and Audrey a long-suffering sigh.

“Oh, don’t be such a grumpy pup,” Audrey smiled, rubbing that spot behind his ears they knew he liked, even if he would never admit it.

“You love this,” Nathan pointed out with a grin.  “You could get up and walk away any time, you’re the one letting them play king of the castle on you instead.”

Duke lifted one foreleg.  Nestled against his chest, safely shielded from the chaos above by the broad upper leg, a little girl slept soundly somehow despite the noise.  Tiny fingers were twined in the soft wooly fur, and she stirred and mumbled something about her puppy.

“That may be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Nathan beamed, pulling out his phone to take pictures.  Duke looked resigned.

“Let me guess – she came over to hug the big puppy, fell asleep, and while you were stuck the other kids took shameless advantage of your good nature?” Audrey smiled.

Even as a wolf, Duke managed a rueful expression as he nodded.

“Do you want us to tell them to knock it off?” Nathan asked, “Or at least tone it down?” he added dubiously, watching some of the more energetic children.  The wolf cub was now tugging on Duke’s tail, and a couple of little fae were poking curiously at his feet.

Duke shook his head, but it was hard to say whether he meant no, or was just trying to dislodge the goblin toddler who’d decided to chew on his ear.

“Okay, guys, listen up,” Nathan said in a kindly but firm voice, and the play halted as he drew the children’s attention.  “If you want to play with Duke then you have to play nice.  I know you don’t want to hurt him, it’s just exciting when you’re all having fun, but you did get a bit rough.  Now I want you all to apologize and give him a nice hug, then you can play so long as you’re careful not to hurt him.  Okay?”

A couple dozen little voices chirruped and squeaked and rumbled “Sorry, Duke!” and a couple dozen pairs of little arms hugged the wolf, as many little faces smiling happily.  Duke gently nuzzled them and wagged his tail, showing without words that they were forgiven. 

Audrey and Nathan watched, smiling softly, and thought about how far he’d come.


	22. Life or death

Nathan cried out in pain as the needle-like teeth sunk into his arm.  A second too late, Audrey’s bullet pierced the naga’s skull and it went limp, dragging Nathan down by the arm.

Audrey rushed over and helped him pry the jaws open.  The wound was bleeding more than might be expected, and the skin around it was beginning to swell and redden.

Audrey helped him to the truck and grabbed the first aid kit.  She hastily bandaged the wound, feeling sick at the dark lines beginning to radiate outward.

“Duke’s gonna be furious,” Nathan mumbled as Audrey drove back to town at breakneck speed.  He was pale and starting to sweat as nausea set in.

“He’ll get over it.  You’re gonna be fine, Nathan, we’re going to get you help.”

“Don’t think most hospitals stock antidote for naga venom,” Nathan coughed and blood flecked his lips.

“You’re going to be _fine,_ ” Audrey growled.  It wasn’t long before they were pulling up to the naga settlement.

Duke was already running toward them as Audrey pulled Nathan out of the car, his face white.  The other naga gathered around, their faces grim.

“There must be something you can do!” Audrey cried.  But they shook their heads.

“There is no cure for the bite of a naga,” the matriarch told her gravely.

Nathan reached up weakly and grabbed Duke’s arm.  “We……talked about…this,” he wheezed.

“Nathan, god, no, I never wanted this,” Duke said brokenly.

“I know, Duke,” Audrey said gently.  “But he’s right.  You can save him.  He wants you to.  It’ll be okay.  We’ll take good care of him, he’ll never suffer like you have.”

Nathan’s hand fell away as he lost consciousness.

There was no time.

A moment later there was a wolf where Duke had been.  He took Nathan’s arm in his mouth, the huge fangs closing around the naga’s bite as if to confine it and protect Nathan from it.

He bit down, and Nathan woke screaming.

**

The venom of the naga had been viciously painful, but it was nothing compared to what Nathan felt as the lycanthropy raced through his body, changing every cell, burning out the poison as it went.  He screamed and shuddered and spasmed, flesh reshaping and fur sprouting as his body underwent its first and most brutal Change.

He lay panting on the sandy soil when it was done, a huge dark-grey wolf, almost black with silver flecks in his fur.  Duke nuzzled his face, whining softly in worry, and Audrey knelt beside him, her hands in his fur as he’d seen her so often do for Duke.  Nathan wanted to reassure them but he was exhausted and overwhelmed.  The pain was fading but in its place heightened senses were making themselves known, sounds he never would have picked up and an entire world of scent that was completely new.  He could hear Audrey and Duke’s accelerated heartbeats, could smell their fear for him – and their guilt.  He lifted his head to clumsily nuzzle them back, feeling his new body alien and unmanageable.  How did Duke make this look so easy?

“It’s okay, Nathan, just rest, you’re all right now,” Audrey murmured, stroking his fur.  Nathan closed his eyes with a soft sigh.  He could feel them, their presence a warm reassurance beside him.  His pack.  Duke lay down beside him, a foreleg thrown over Nathan’s shoulder and his chin resting across Nathan’s neck.  It made Nathan feel safe, protected.

“I’m just going to go get a blanket and move the car off the road and then I’ll join you two, all right?” Audrey asked.  Nathan nodded, lifting his head a little to watch her walk away, unconsciously whining a little at the separation from his alpha.  Duke nuzzled him reassuringly and Nathan sighed as Audrey headed back after pulling the truck over into the scrub.  Was this what pack bonds were like?  He couldn’t handle having Audrey walk fifty feet away, safe and in sight the whole time, and Duke had survived without having any pack at all for all those years?

Audrey came back and crouched beside him, petting him.  Nathan felt that he probably ought to find that humiliating but he was too busy enjoying the attention to worry about it.  “I thought we’d all get some rest, you look like you need it,” Audrey suggested.  “Is there anything you need before we all settle down?”

Nathan shook his head.  The pain was fully gone now but he was tired, more tired than he’d ever been in his life.  Audrey nodded and gave his ear one more scratch before settling down atop them, in the dip between Nathan’s back and Duke’s belly.  She pulled the blanket over herself and pillowed her head on Duke’s foreleg.

She seemed so small like this, so fragile, her weight atop him nothing to this new body.  He understood now why Duke had been so fearful of the two of them confronting the supernatural in their frail human bodies.  But now Audrey had two werewolves, and one of them could be with her at all times while the other was taking care of other matters.

It was strange to think of himself as a werewolf, to remember that he was no longer human.  There were people who would kill him just for that, no matter how good a person he was.  Logically, Nathan knew that he wasn’t any more dangerous now than he had been.  Yes, a werewolf could go feral and kill people, but any human being could pick up a gun and cause just as much death.  And yet, any danger he had posed as a human would have been on account of his own choices.  He would never have come to his senses at dawn wondering if he’d killed anyone in the night.  It was a chilling prospect, and it made him sick that Duke had had to wake up that way.

That also reminded Nathan, he should probably spend his first full moon in the panic room.  Audrey would hate it, would insist that Nathan would be fine, but Duke would understand.  Theoretically Nathan should be fine, he had his pack.  But that was a chance he wasn’t willing to take, and he understood now why Duke had been so reluctant to abandon the hateful room even when he knew he posed no threat.

In a way, Nathan was glad he’d been turned.  He and Audrey had done their best to understand Duke this whole time, and they did pretty well as a rule, he felt.  But he was starting to see that there were just some things that he could never have really understood as a human.  He’d thought he had some idea of the fear of loneliness that had driven Duke to accept unhealthy pack bonds, but it was nothing compared to the yawning chasm of dread that he felt now at the thought of Audrey and Duke not being there, the absolute _wrongness_ of being alone.  How Duke had ever managed to tear himself away, to choose that terrible solitude over falling into darkness, Nathan would never know.  Certainly he could never have been that strong.

Compared to Duke, Nathan was lucky – he would never _have_ to be that strong.  He was born a wolf into a loving, supportive, healthy pack.  For him the panic room was a precaution, not a necessity.  With luck he’d never know what it was to be a lone wolf, to live with that howling emptiness day in and day out, eclipsed by it wholly at the full moon and turned into a murderous monster.  He’d never be driven by desperation to seek solace in poisonous relationships, tolerating beatings or worse just to not be alone.

It seemed horribly unfair.  To Nathan, the wolf was a blessing – the strength and speed and toughness to protect his pack and his town and his people.  To Duke it had only ever been a curse.  Nathan hated that he got to be a wolf without ever suffering any of the grief it had brought Duke.

But now he could be the one to protect Duke, and that was worth something at least.  He yawned, snuggling back a little against his pack, and let sleep take him.

**

In the morning he was still a wolf, and he found this rather dismaying.

Duke stood and stretched and nosed at him to get up.  Nathan tried and did manage it, but felt terribly uncoordinated.  Duke shifted, wrapping the blanket around his waist until Audrey tossed him the pack of emergency clothes.  “You’re overthinking it,” he told Nathan sympathetically.  “I felt the same way the first couple full moons I was myself.  Don’t think about how to move, just do it.”

Nathan grumbled.  The wolf might have felt like a blessing last night, but right now he wanted to be human again.  He couldn’t even tell Duke that, and the lack of words was incredibly frustrating.  Somehow Duke always managed to convey his thoughts remarkably well as a wolf, and Nathan had absolutely no idea how he did it.

His frustration must have been clear enough, however, because Duke rubbed his back.  “You’ll change back when you’re ready.  Don’t try too hard and don’t fight it when it happens, it’ll be easier that way.”

Nathan nuzzled his shoulder, feeling guilty again.  Clearly Duke intended to mentor and guide him, help him learn to be a werewolf so that Nathan didn’t suffer for being one the way Duke had.

Duke grinned and scratched that perfect spot behind Nathan’s ears.  “You make a very handsome wolf,” he said playfully.  “And I’m guessing you’re also a very hungry one.  Hop in the back of the Bronco and we’ll go find breakfast, okay?”


	23. Unity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place about a year after Nathan’s been turned.

“Good morning,” Audrey smiled at her sleepy boys as they grumbled and stretched awake on the beach.  “Or should I say, good afternoon.  Did you have a fun night?”

“Was a good run,” Nathan agreed, gladly taking the mug of coffee she offered, not even bothering with clothes.

“Yeah, we had fun,” Duke agreed, pulling on pants and heading for the campfire to start breakfast.  He’d come a long way from spending his full moons imprisoned in his hold.

“You looked like it, like a great big pair of puppies playing,” Audrey said fondly.  “You know, I’ve been thinking.  You two have gotten so close now that Nathan’s a wolf too.  Not that you weren’t before, of course, but there are things you share now that you couldn’t before.”

Nathan nodded.  “Always did my best to understand where you were coming from,” he told Duke, “but it’s different when you’re living it.”

“I like being able to share those things with you, Nate.  But Audrey, that doesn’t mean I love you any less for being human.  I love you because you’re  _ you _ , and that’s not something that would change whether you were human or wolf or…I dunno, gnome,” Duke reassured her.

Audrey leaned over and softly kissed him.  “I know, Duke.  I’d never doubt your love for me.  That’s not what I’m saying at all.” 

Relieved, Duke wrapped his arms around her and tenderly returned the kiss.  

Nathan patiently waited for them to finish, then leaned in and kissed Audrey as well.  “I don’t love you any less either, now that I’m a wolf and closer with Duke.  I know you know – just wanna say it.”

“You’re sweet,” Audrey said fondly, and stole another kiss from them both.  “I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and it has nothing to do with insecurity.  It’s about wanting to share fully in your lives.  About running with you on full moons, about feeling the passion of heat, about being a part of you and a part of our pack in every way.”

“Are you saying you want to be turned?” Duke asked slowly.

“Not if you’re uncomfortable with it,” she said right away.  “I know how hard it was for you when you had to turn Nathan to save him.  I thought that maybe now you’ve had a chance to see how happy he still is and how healthy his pack bonds are that you might be more at ease with the idea.  But if not, then that’s fine too.  If it ever becomes necessary like it did for Nathan, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that I’m fully willing, and if not then I’ll just stay human.  Your comfort is the most important thing.”

“That makes me feel selfish, though,” Duke protested.

“It’s not selfish,” Audrey reassured him.  “You’re not denying me anything if you say no.  I’ve been very happy with things just the way they are, and I’d keep being happy with you if I stayed human.  And I’d rather be human and part of a happy pack, then become a wolf against your wishes.”

“Your happiness is our happiness, Duke,” Nathan reminded him.  “Can’t sacrifice your own to make ours.”

“Yeah, okay,” Duke nodded, allowing them to cuddle him shamelessly.  “The thing is, you’re not wrong, Audrey.  The things I was afraid of when turning Nathan, they haven’t happened.  Just because he’s a wolf – just because you would be a wolf – doesn’t mean you’re going to go through the same stuff I did because I was a wolf.  Our pack is strong and healthy and stable and loving.  You’re not alone, there’s no abuse, there’s no imprisonment.  You have someone to show you the ropes.  And you’re also not wrong about being able to share in the pack bond in a way you can’t now.”  He took a deep breath.  “Turning you would make our pack better, not worse.  I know that.  My fears aren’t real, and I won’t let them ruin this.  If you want this, I want you to have it.”

“Thank you,” Audrey hugged him tightly and kissed him, stroking his dark hair.  “I hope that by my seeing this as a gift, you can start to see it that way with yourself too.”

“I can be the one to bite her, if that would help,” Nathan offered.  “Even though I was turned and not born, I can still do it, right?”

“You can.  But we both should.  Our…our gift to her.  When do you want to do this, Audrey?”

“We could do it now, if you’re comfortable.  I’ll have a full month to get used to it before the next full moon.”

“You don’t want to…I dunno, say goodbye to being human or anything?” Duke asked.

Audrey shook her head.  “Like I said, I’ve thought about this for a long time.  I’m ready.  But if you need more time, that’s fine too.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Duke said.  “Here, lie down.”

Audrey lay back on the beach blanket, and held up her arms to them.  Each of them took their hand in hers as they began their shift.  It was slower than usual, this soon after the drain of a full moon, but a few minutes later she lay between the two great wolves, resting her hands in their fur as they carefully took her in their jaws.

She would not have admitted it to them, not when Duke had suffered so and Nathan had not had a choice, but she was very much looking forward to this.

They bit down.

The pain was immediate and intense but it was a good kind of pain, the pain of scratching a deep itch to satisfaction.  She felt herself change, an alien and rather disconcerting sensation, and sat up a minute later as a wolf.  Her fur was as light as Nathan’s charcoal grey coat was dark, white touched with a few highlights of pale grey, with Duke’s more natural shades of grey somewhere between the two of them.  She leaned over to nuzzle them, delighting in the rich new range of scent coloring her world, eager to learn what all the new input meant.  Instinct was strong in her and she didn’t question it, remembering how Nathan and Duke had struggled with overthinking their movements.  She wanted to run, wanted to wrestle, wanted to try out this new form – but at the moment her boys were looking at her with worried faces and soft whines of concern.  She wagged her tail reassuringly and nudged them into lying in a pile, and lay down atop them as she was so fond of doing.  This was right and good, her pack close and safe and content, being able to feel that, and them.  The rest could come later.

They were going to be all right.


	24. Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: infant abandonment
> 
> This is the last complete scene I have. I'll post one more chapter with my notes and scraps of scenes, just in case anyone's interested - there were so many more thoughts and ideas that never made it into complete scenes and I'm quite proud of some of them. If you have questions or ideas about the werewolf!verse, things you might want answered or things you might want to see, hit me up on tumblr (yumearashi) and I can throw some thoughts at them. I might have never fleshed out the rest of it, but this 'verse is still my baby and I'm always happy to babble about it : )

“And I told you not to go there, but you  _ had _ to tell the shapeshifter that his mother was a - ” Audrey’s playful teasing stopped abruptly as they rounded the corner at the top of the stairs to see a laundry basket on the doorstep of the agency, innocuous looking but worryingly unexpected.

They backed up around the corner and were about to head down the stairs to discuss how to safely approach the mysterious gift, when a thin fussing cry broke the early morning silence.

Nathan was at the basket in a few long-legged strides, scooping up the pair of swaddled bundles inside and cooing comforting nonsense to them.

“Really?  The baby on the doorstep schtick?” Audrey commented as she approached, picking up the letter that had been in the basket with the twins.

Duke lifted his head and scented the air.  “Don’t recognize the mother, but she was here pretty recently.  Either she waited to watch for our car, or she knew when we’d be here.  Either way, these guys haven’t been here long.”

Audrey read the letter aloud.  “I didn’t know their father wasn’t human.  I don’t know anything about that world and I can’t be part of it.  I’m sorry.  Please find my babies a good home.  Their names are Jean and James.”

“Hewwo Jean, hewwo James!”  Nathan murmured.  “Were you all alone out here?  You were, so sad!  How could anyone see your sweet faces and not just love you to itty bitty bits, hm?”

“I think we lost Nathan,” Duke grinned.  “You know he’s gonna want to keep them, right?”

“Just for now,” Nathan coaxed, looking up and seeing Audrey’s frown.  “We can’t call social services, they’ll just put these two with a human family.  Or worse, they’ll grow up in the system.”

“Cheap shot, Wuornos,” Audrey scowled.  “They could be human too.  We don’t know that whatever the father is got passed down.”

Duke leaned over, gently sniffing at the tiny wrinkled faces.  “Werewolves, both of them.  Born wolves like me, not bitten.  Nathan’s right, we can’t give them to some unprepared human family.”

Audrey rubbed a hand over her face.  “All right, but just until we find a suitable family.  And don’t forget, Nathan, the father might come looking for them.  We don’t know if he even knows he has kids, much less whether he consented to giving them up.  Or the mother might regret it and change her mind and ask for them back.  So don’t get too attached.”

“Awww, who couldn’t get attached to such perfect little cuties, huh?  I think Audrey’s just being silly, what do you think?” Nathan cooed.

Duke patted Audrey on the shoulder.  “Looks like you’re on your own at the office today.  I’ll run out and get formula and stuff.  Nate, text me a list.  If you can de-mush your brain long enough, that is.”

Nathan didn’t even answer.


	25. Author's notes: By Moonight Cold and Clear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I lied, it's gonna be two chapters more. I thought just for giggles I'd toss in the notes for the original fic, there's some interesting tidbits in there and you get to see how my thought process went. I bolded anything I thought people might find particularly interesting, in case people don't want to wade though everything (no pun intended ;)

**Deleted scene:** (Between where Audrey tells Nathan about Max Hansen being in town, and the scene where Duke asks Audrey why Nathan’s started being civil)

[Notes: Delete this scene, it undermines Nathan’s motivations subsequently, makes it look like he’s just trying to get Duke’s cooperation in the investigation]

> “What?” Audrey asked Nathan, catching him looking at her.
> 
> “That tip about Hansen came from Duke, didn’t it?”
> 
> “I promised my source confidentiality,” she frowned.
> 
> Nathan snorted.  “Half your meals come from the Gull and I’m supposed to believe a tip like that just came out of nowhere?”
> 
> “You can believe what you like, but if you start hassling him because you think he was withholding information, I’m not going to stand for that.”
> 
> “I just want to know one thing.  How did you do it?  Duke would rather have his fingernails pulled out with pliers than volunteer information to anyone in law enforcement.  He wouldn’t make an exception just because he likes you or because he finds you attractive.  Did you trick it out of him?  Get him drunk?  Plant a bug?  What?”
> 
> Audrey rolled her eyes.  “You know, if you really wanted his cooperation, you might try treating him like a person instead of the scum of the earth. You might be surprised at where that’ll get you.  I _know_ the academy taught you about using empathy to build rapport with persons of interest to win cooperation, if you hadn’t let your personal vendetta get in the way you’d have known that.”

**

Notes:

[at this point (after the scene where Nathan and Duke get drunk together) we’re roughly 2-3 weeks past the last full moon, and the focus of the mystery is Max Hansen and the manhunt for him]

Next scenes - Maybe Nathan guesses it was Duke that told her about Hansen, and wanted to know what she did to get him to cooperate, maybe Duke is weirded out by Nathan being civil (see below).  Nathan and Duke mending fences.  Duke telling Audrey about his (and/or Nate’s) sucky childhood (which might be a good place to drop more hints/clues about Wade)?  This should be enough to get us to the Duke-werewolf reveal.

Hansen will not get found, he won’t reappear until the day after the next full moon when he turns up dead, leading Nate and Audrey to question whether 1) Duke is the killer wolf, or 2) Hansen is the one who let him out.

Note:  Upon finding out the Duke is a werewolf, Audrey and Nate probably do think Duke was the killer, though they (or at least Audrey) wouldn’t consider it his fault since he has no memory to consciousness as a wolf.  Duke himself is pretty sure he didn’t commit the earlier killings, because he came to in the panic room come dawn plus he knows there’s another wolf running around.  But he can’t 100% rule it out, and he thinks it’s perfectly possible he killed Hansen (he didn’t, since Wade talks later about Duke needing to get a taste for blood).

We need to do at least one more scene with Nathan and Duke mending fences before we can plausibly segue into Nathan calling him back from a wolf.  It would be okay to put that now, since the last two scenes were mystery-plot.]

I think at this point we can build in a segue to the original preview scene

Maybe add something to that scene (or the next morning) with Audrey and Nathan discussing whether Duke is the killer

  * Maybe after the above scene Duke comes to Audrey like ‘there’s something fishy going on with Nathan, he came in the other day and ordered lunch and was civil the whole time.  Even tipped well.  Is this his new tactic for stalking me?”
  * At some point Nathan asked Audrey how she got Duke to cooperate and she’s like ‘…by not being an asshole, duh’



[Note: Audrey doesn’t tell Nathan right away that she knows Hansen is his dad because 1) if he wouldn’t want to tell her, she wants to respect that, and 2)  if she tells him than he’ll know her lead came from Duke.]

[red herring idea 1 – Max Hansen shows up in town and is big and scary and everyone thinks he did it – until he’s killed at the next full moon – which also proves Duke’s innocence – there’s no blood on him when Nate and Audrey find him.  But do we want to prove Duke innocent?  Because then Nate and Audrey will know there’s another werewolf in play.  But then they already know that someone else is involved because someone let Duke out.  Maybe they think that’s Hansen until he turns up dead?]

**[Red herring idea 2 – maybe Duke steals the case file or breaks in to look at it, because he wants to see the crime scene photos and evidence and confirm it’s a werewolf.  If he gets caught, would Audrey be able to keep Nate form tossing him in jail?  If you do this, you’re going to need a solid motivation for *why* Duke would do this, and a very very good excuse for him to give Audrey to get his ass out of the fire]**

[to fill the month between the first full moon Audrey's in town (when Duke’s alibi is established courtesy of Nate’s patrols) and the second (when they find out Duke's a werewolf)

Note: The investigation into whether anyone’s missing work before or after full moon night won't go anywhere because Duke doesn't have a regular schedule, and Wade is hiding out in the woods.

Note: Wade is keeping tabs on Duke, but on the first full moon he's running around town killing people, he doesn’t go to the docks and see the patrol car watching the Rouge, thus he does not know that Duke has an alibi.  Likewise, Duke is in his panic room so he also is unaware that his innocence has been proven.

Note:  The reason Duke isn’t telling Audrey that he knows this is the work of a werewolf is mostly because he doesn't think she'll believe that werewolves exist, but also because he doesn't want to expose the fact that he himself is one (especially since he'd then be under suspicion, since he doesn't know he's got an alibi).  He can't change at will like Teen Wolf wolves can and he's too dangerous to be around at the full moon, so he can't prove that werewolves exist.

  * Audrey goes around and spend time with Duke socially, both working towards a reconciliation for he and Nathan (already mentioned), and trying to see if Duke let’s anything slip (since she suspects he knows something).  Audrey claims to believe Duke is right, that it’s just an animal, and that her time is wasted.  Duke doesn’t really believe this, but he likes Audrey, so he accepts her company even if he’s no less wary about it.



Note: In the beginning Audrey kept to herself her suspicions that Duke knows something, because Nathan was already so quick to suspect Duke when he literally has no reason, she's a little concerned about what he'll do if he does have one

  * Duke telling Audrey more about his sad childhood, so she could become determined to help him patch things up with Nathan.  He also tells her about Nathan's sad childhood.


  * when Nate is like 'grr arg but Duke sucks' Audrey can be like 'I'm just trying to get close to him because he knows something about the case but while I'm on the subject....'


  * Audrey pumping Duke for information. Maybe he accidentally lets something slip - maybe she catches a bit of light reflecting in his eyes at some point.  even if she doesn’t know werewolves are a thing, I'm pretty sure she's gonna do a double take a glow-in-the-dark eyes.  she'll still wonder if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but deep down she'll know it was real


  * Duke met Max Hansen in prison and found out he’s Nathan’s dad – i.e. Duke bitched about the Chief persecuting him, and Max was like 'pff, yeah, he stole my kid, I hear ya'.  So Duke had the dilemma of whether to tell Nathan bad news about his parentage or keep a secret from him.  He ultimately tried to tell Nathan once and Nathan was like 'stfu, you're just being a jerk',  then Nathan confronted his father and they got in a huge fight and then the Chief died before they could reconcile, so Nate hates and blames Duke for that (out of guilt).  Audrey can be the one to very gently tell Nathan, "You know it's not Duke's fault that your father died/adopted you/was a huge dick" and point out that at least Duke was honest, and that he probably really struggled with the decision to tell Nate.  Which Nate won't believe, but still (especially given Duke's contentious relationship with his own father.) [instead of altering the existing 'what's between you two' conversation I’m saving this reveal for later because Nate is not the type to talk about something so personal right off the bat.  Duke might, though, if Audrey asks.  But maybe not, he might still respect Nate’s privacy enough to not bring it up.


  * At some point Nate needs to apologize for treating Duke like a criminal and harassing him and blaming him for everything.  He should acknowledge that he should have realized how bad things were for Duke and tried harder to help him break out of that life (instead of just judging him for not doing so).  Duke forgives him, because they were just kids, it’s understandable Nathan didn’t realize, and he couldn’t have really given Duke the help he needed, as long as the adults and authority figures in town had written him off as a loss there was never going to be any legit path for him.  Nate still apologizes for continuing that and making it impossible for Duke to ever go legit.  Maybe even acknowledges that it’s admirable how much Duke has made of himself, especially after seeing how hard he works at the Gull.  This will be a later scene, though.  Maybe after the bit where Duke’s injured and everyone comes ot see him and his employees talk about him giving them a second chance



**What does it mean that Duke keeps the necklaces at the full moon when he strips off everything else?  What are they that they mean that much to him?  I didn’t actually plan that detail, that scene was the very first one I wrote so there was no context for it beyond that being how Audrey and Nathan recognize him, but there are interesting possibilities.**

[something to explain/explore at some point – Nathan and Audrey took the reveal very well, jut rolling with the world-upending news that werewolves are real.  There are a few reasons for this.  1) They're both first responders, their mindset is that when everything goes sideways, you do what needs to be done and worry about the larger implications of it later.  Duke was obviously in pain and not well and badly in need of their help, so Nathan and Audrey went into crisis mode, focusing on dealing with the immediate problem at hand rather than having an existential freakout.  2) As detectives, they are trained to solve puzzles - and the existence of werewolves very neatly solved a puzzle that previously had no good explanation.  By the time things calmed down enough that they could step back and think about 'holy shit werewolves are real', they were able to say 'yeah actually that makes a lot of stuff suddenly make sense'  3) they're both very pragmatic people, and they saw it happen right in front of their eyes.  I don't think either of them is inclined to deny what they *know* to be true - even if they might like to.

Planning battle prep:

  * Pepper spray & flashbangs as effective weapons because of werewolf heightened senses.  But consider this, whatever ideas they come up with, they’ll have on them at the full moon and that will impact the fight.  Solution - they ready those instead of raising their guns, but Duke steps in and then they can’t use anything without hurting him too
  * “That’s good, if they’re not very familiar with the area maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Audrey mused.
  * we definitely need to keep [their pack] in mind if we can ever figure out who this is and make a plan for taking them down
  * Have Duke rework the safe room door so he can’t be let out.
  * How far and for how long can a wolf stay away from his pack?  The killer’s been in town for months without his pack present, unless they’re human.  And if they’re human he could have *allies* which puts a whole messy spin on things.  In truth, the killer is wade and he has no pack bonds, but the threegulls don’t know that.  Answer: he can’t have human allies in town, they’d carry his scent.  And the duration thing is moot, he’s only coming into town during the full moons and then retreating to his hiding place where (they assume) his pack is.
  * Framing Duke implies that he’s done killing, so maybe they’re hopeful that this is over, although unhappy about the possibility they might never catch the killer.  But that only holds up if the killer is not his abuser, and was just killing for kicks then looking for a patsy – which we’ve established is not the case.
  * Is Duke okay knowing he might have killed?  If Hansen is the only person he’s killed, Duke can live with it.  He’s sure as hell not happy about it, but like Nate said, if Duke was going to kill anyone at all then taking out a serial killer is kind of a best-case scenario.



The lack of blood on Duke when they found him implies – but not proves - Duke’s innocence.

  * “We have to assume that any weapon we can think of may not work unless we actually see it do so.  For example, fire your taser, but have a backup plan for if it has no effect.
  * It would make more sense for them to wait for the killer on the Rouge, since it’s reasonable to assume he’ll go there to let Duke out again, rather than just patrolling the town again.  Ideally they’d try to trap him until dawn when he changes back, but that would screw up everything about the big reveal and honestly I can’t think of a way they could do it, so we can just say they can’t think of one either.  I order to keep the finale intact if they’re waiting for him on the Rouge, we’ll need to say that their plan is surveil and tail – wait for him to show up and then follow him back to his hiding place so they can apprehend him as a human come morning, rather than confronting him.  New problem – wtf would induce them to get out of their car?  Wolf jumps on/in front of the car.



[Note: Hansen has to have been maimed beyond recognition or that phone call wouldn’t have been ‘we found another body’ it’d have been ‘Hansen was found dead’]

**[Note: the reason Duke’s senses are sharpening as the pack bond grows is that his human and wolf halves are coming into harmony.  As a lone wolf he can’t change at will, but as his pack bonds form and strengthen he’s developing that ability, and part of what comes with it is greater access to the wolf’s abilities – senses, speed, strength, etc.]**

  * [Audrey and Nate taking shifts until dawn, crashing on top of Duke’s bed after, Duke waking up happy to be with his pack.  Mention the teddybear?  Nate and Audrey discussing what it means if Duke is the killer.  Upon finding out the Duke is a werewolf, Audrey and Nate probably do think Duke was the killer, though they (or at least Audrey) wouldn’t consider it his fault since he has no memory or consciousness as a wolf.  Duke himself is pretty sure he didn’t commit the earlier killings, because he came to in the panic room come dawn plus he knows there’s another wolf running around.  But he can’t 100% rule it out, and he thinks it’s perfectly possible he killed Hansen (he didn’t, since Wade talks later about Duke needing to get a taste for blood).]


  * Scene for the month between this night and the next full moon:
  * Hansen turns up dead, thus proving it couldn’t be him who let Duke out.  This also implies – but not proves - Duke’s innocence – there’s no blood on him when Nate and Audrey find him.  Don’t forget to have Nathan feel relieved that Hansen’s dead.
  * Duke explaining the supernatural – maybe the morning after the full moon, he starts to explain only to be interrupted when their cells go off because Hansen’s body was found (people taking the warning more seriously and stating indoors).
  * The three of them going over the case from this new angle (and bonding!)  as a segue
  * Maybe have a scene where Duke explains why he never said anything to Audrey about knowing this was a werewolf?  That might be too self-explanatory, though.
  * We could also have more reveals of Duke and Nathan’s bad childhoods.  (which might be a good place to drop more hints/clues about Wade, I’d like at least one more hint about him.  On the other hand, I kinda need to avoid character-sufferitis here.  I’ve been pretty mean to Duke…maybe find a way to make this positive?
  * Note: Re: the abuse - there was a lot of self-blame. I mean, his father told him he shouldn't need a pack, he got one, and it went bad, so....[feeling of punishment about the safe room, because if he was strong enough to not need pack then he wouldn’t need a safe room]
  * Maybe at some point Nathan asks Duke why he came back to Haven, and Duke just shrugs and goes ‘home is the place where, when you go there they have to take you in.’
  * Note: the reason Wade let Duke out and then left at the 2nd full moon, rather than hunting human with him, is that he was afraid that giving Duke a pack bond before he got a taste for bloodlust would stabilize him too much, allow him to retain himself as a wolf and refuse to kill.  He only offered it at the 3rd full moon because it was a choice between that or losing him to Nate and Audrey
  * Note:  Wade wasn’t letting Duke out every month, he wanted to frame Duke as much as make him a killer, so he wanted the town whipped into a frenzy over the case.  If Duke got caught too soon, that ruins it
  * First to second full moon is healing (the rift between Nate and Duke).  Second full moon is bonding, the three of them building a pack. After the third full moon it becoming mates?  That’s literally anti-climactic though…


  * revisiting the case:
  * motive, means, opportunity, victim selection, cause of death, murder weapon (Duke)
  * there's no lock on the outside of the panic room, so anyone could have let Duke out, but whoever it was not only knows werewolves are real but that he is one.
  * was Duke the presence that was following them on the full moon?  or were they sensing whoever let him out? (answer – it wasn’t Wade, he couldn’t have gotten that close to Duke without pack bonding.  Duke had scented his pack and was tailing them
  * Motive for letting Duke out – to frame him
  * Nate & Audrey asking what was Duke doing about any of this
  * Duke confirms Hansen was not a werewolf, so now they don’t know who else is
  * Duke has gone around town looking for the wolf but with no luck



Timeline:

Pre-first full moon:

plot development – setting up the murder case

character development – introducing their characters & the relationship between Nathan & Duke

1st full moon:

plot development – quiet patrols but still triple murder

character development – Audrey & Nate’s stakeout/date, breakthrough 1st steps toward reconciliation

1st to 2nd full moon:

plot development – working the case from a mundane angle

character development – healing the rift between Nathan & Duke

2nd full moon:

plot development – werewolves exist

character development – Audrey & Nathan call Duke back & help him - like pack would

2nd to 3rd full moon:

plot development – working the case from a supernatural angle, planning for the showdown

character development – the three grow closer, forming a pack bond but implicitly

3rd full moon:

plot development – The Big Reveal

character development – Nathan & Audrey declared themselves Duke’s pack, Duke gains control, confronts and kills his brother

post 3rd moon

plot development – wrap-up

character development – Duke healing & learning to be pack wolf – the three of them becoming mates – too much here, anticlimactic?

[Maybe that night Duke hears/smells/senses Wade coming to try to free him? – maybe once Wade gives up and leaves, this is what prompts Duke that Nate and Audrey are in danger?  But that wouldn’t give him much of a lead, some lead, but maybe not enough?  Would that be the logical conclusion, that this wolf was going after Nate and Audrey?  Not necessarily but instinct might render that moot.]

**Original opening of the final battle scene, written before I did the battle planning:**

> Nathan was about to call Duke’s name when he realized that the massive, terrible wolf stalking out of the shadows wasn’t him.  Duke’s wolf had been far more intelligent than any natural one, but still wild, still feral.  This wolf was looking at them with fully human intelligence – and a bloodlust that chilled Nathan to the bone.  He glanced at Audrey and she nodded, and they both raised their guns, knowing it there was little chance it would help.
> 
> The attack came without warning.

For the scene where Duke sees Wade’s body laid out

  * [Duke talking about how becoming like this is what terrifies him more than anything.  Mention that he’s suspected for a long time that his father was a rogue – now he wonders if Simon wasn’t lost at sea at all but went the same way as Wade and someone put him down – we could say that someone was Dwight, work it into the sequel’s plot.  Maybe Dwight decided to stamp out the Crocker curse of madness, tried to kill Simon (failed) tracked Wade only to get there too late, and is now tailing Duke]
  * [mention later that Wade did managed to sever his need for pack bonds enough to stay in control at the full moon, and that’s what drove him murderously insane – put that in the funeral scene]
  * “I guess the old man succeeded with one son and failed with the other, only his success went homicidally insane and it’s the fucked up failure who’s still around.” [pointing out that Wade was not among the abusers] [and the irony that even though Wade had destroyed himself by forcing himself to exist without pack bonds, he still wanted them, still wanted Duke to be his pack.  That could maybe be something Duke throws in Simon’s face if they ever meet.]  Simon succeeded with one son and failed with the other, and the one who succeeded went homicidally insane because of it and the one who failed was left emotionally crippled



**

About the memorial town gathering and Duke being invited

(“yeah sure, some of those old farts will probably piss in their breeches to see anything good said about me”)

  * All Duke's people coming to check on him when he's hurt (beattie,, stan, Vickie, the employees at the gull - talking about 2nd chances - single mom, runaway, homeless guy) – the gull’s employee’s reassure him he doesn’t have to worry about food, someone will bring him something every night


  *         Audrey singing lullabies so Duke will know she's there, Nate telling Duke how brave and selfless he is, how he knows how much Duke is hurting, etc
  *         Note: the reason I’m using Gloria here instead of bringing Eleanor in for a cameo is that Gloria has more of a bond with Duke



 

> “You’re taking this well,” Nathan observed.
> 
> “I’m too old to think the world is as black and white as some people assume.  More things in heaven and earth, eh Horatio?  You know, I think that suits you better than Nathan, I’m gonna call you Horatio from now on.”
> 
> “Please don’t,” Nathan said, pained.
> 
> Despite his wounds, Duke chuffed a little canine laugh.
> 
> “Did you just laugh?” Audrey asked him, smiling.  It was surely a good sign.
> 
> “If I wasn’t convinced that was him in there before, I am now.  Only Duke could laugh at you while he’s in that sorry a state.”

**

  *          **[duke will not only be traumatized by what happened but probably really scared at being wounded since he probably never has been before.  There are a few things that can hurt werewolves but not the sort of thing anyone but an actual werewolf hunter would use, so the only thing he would have taken real injury from would be another werewolf.  So he probably *did* get some wounds that stuck around from his abusive dad, but nothing like this]**
  *         [or maybe Hunter!Dwight’s not the big bad, maybe Simon comes back to collect Duke to make him take Wade’s place, and for all his rage and determination to kill him Duke’s terrified and Nate and Audrey have to protect him and take out Simon.  I would like a scene where Nate and Audrey protect Duke, if I can work it in]



**

**[Deleted scene]**

> Audrey’s eyes widened as she took in the stateroom of the Rouge.  It looked like a minor tornado had hit it, and Duke was rummaging wildly through the chaos.
> 
> “The hell happened here?” Nathan asked.
> 
> “I’m looking for something, obviously.  Not much of a detective, are you?” Duke snapped.
> 
> “What’s missing?” Audrey asked.
> 
> “A book, a notebook. Hand-bound, leather cover, maybe three-quarters of the pages filled in, my handwriting.”
> 
> “The little black book of smuggling?” Nathan snorted.  “Afraid I’ll finally have the proof to make the charges stick?”
> 
> Duke straightened up, eyes flashing.  “You have no goddamned idea what you’re talking about.  This is so much bigger than some petty bullshit crime, okay?  This book gets into the wrong hands, people die.  Good, innocent people.  You know, the kind you actually care about helping, not just me.  So maybe do your fucking job and find the thief and get my stuff back, instead of hounding me for meaningless crap, okay?”
> 
> Nathan scowled and took a step forward.  Audrey got between them quickly.  “Duke, are you sure it’s stolen and not just missing in all this?” she gestured around.
> 
> “I’m sure.  This isn’t like misplacing a set of keys.  I keep it in a secure place, I don’t take it out often or for long, and I never take it out without putting it back after.  It’s too important to leave lying around.”
> 
> “All right, we’ll talk to Beattie and the other regulars at the docks, see if anyone’s noticed anything.  We can have one of the uniforms go through security footage for anyone hanging around the Rouge.”
> 
> Nathan folded his arms over his chest.  “What did you mean, people die?”
> 
> Duke frowned uneasily, regretting the outburst.  “I can’t tell you that.  I know you don’t trust me further than you can throw me, but Audrey, you believe me, right?”
> 
> Audrey took in his anxious expression.  “Yeah, I do.”

**

[Now that Duke knows the murder-wolf was Wade, he leads Nate and Audrey to his hideout – some cave where they hid as kids.  Not a lot of human stuff there, Wade must have spent most of his time as a wolf.  But the book is there.]

> “What was in there anyway?” Nathan wanted to know.
> 
> “Yeah, you talked like losing it was the end of the world,” Audrey nodded.
> 
> Duke flipped through the pages as if to reassure himself it was all still there.  “When I left Haven to travel the world, I started meeting other werewolves.  And I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t know jack shit about being a werewolf.  Or I guess I should say that everything I knew was wrong, courtesy of dear old dad and his demented ideas about what it meant to be a werewolf.  So I started learning.”  He held up the book.  “My notes.  Everything you need to know to be a werewolf.  Or, in the wrong hands, to find them and kill them.  Damn dangerous thing to have, I’m trying to memorize it all so I can destroy it, but I still need the notes sometimes.”

 

 

  * Note: After the climax Audrey and Nate will still be staying on the Rouge to take care of Duke’s injuries.  Audrey probably doesn’t even have her room at the B&B at this point, if she was bodyguarding Duke for over 2 weeks she would have just brought her stuff over to the rouge and let the room go because why pay for what you’re not using
  * check for use of 'Nate' outside Duke's dialogue, vs Nathan
  * make sure rooms aboard the Rouge are consistently referred to with nautical terms - galley, stateroom (not kitchen, living room) - cabin and head vs bedroom and bathroom?  don't forget it depends on who's speaking - Audrey at least probably doesn’t think of them that way so of it's her POV it might be ok
  * make sure Nate is calling Audrey ‘Parker’ except in emotionally intense moments




	26. Author's notes: In Sunlight Strong and Golden, and Starlight Slight and Silver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it. A load off my shoulders but it's sad to close the book on this AU I still love so much. 
> 
> When I was writing this, I commented to a friend, "once this fic is finished I should open up the universe to anyone who wants to play in it". So consider this your invitation. If you love Haven and love this 'verse and want to write some supernatural threegulls, feel free to come play in my sandbox. If you want to talk about your ideas or ask questions about the 'verse, feel free to leave a comment here or hit me up on tumblr (yumearashi there too). Thank you for taking this journey with me, I love each and every person who's read this 'verse <3
> 
> Chapter warnings - brief mentions of: child death (canon compliant), domestic abuse, violent xenophobia, child abuse, sexual abuse, non-consensual sex (consent given but not freely), graphic sex stuff, pregnancy, bigotry, dark themes (clearly marked)

**In Sunlight Strong and Golden**

– Main themes:

(plot) Supernatural detective agency cases with looming hints that the Crocker crimes might be catching up to Duke - Climax: Dwight

(character development) Duke becoming comfortable with himself, the Gulls going from pack to mates

The notes from By Moonlight that kicked all this off:

  * Happy ever after idea – supernatural law enforcement.  At some point (maybe in the month between the 2nd and 3rd full moons) Audrey asks Duke if he knows how supernatural crime is usually addressed, and Duke says that supernaturals police themselves since human law enforcement really can’t – but that sometimes, as in this case – that doesn’t work out so well.  They might go into business for themselves, or maybe Duke says there are rumors that someone in the FBI’s in the know (Agent Howard) and he’ll pass the word to get Audrey reassigned to his team (x-files joke here) maybe that’s how they meet Audrey prime? FBI or no, eventually you end up with badass supernatural cop team - Audrey and Nate as detectives, Duke as supernatural liaison/muscle, Gloria/Vickie or Eleanor and maybe Jess as supernatural CSI, Claire as supernatural profiler/sociologist/psych trauma therapist, Audrey prime as their liaison to human law enforcement, Jennifer as a extraplanar communications specialist (can speak with other planes of existence – the dead, incorporeal spirit beings, parallel universes, higher and lower planes, etc). 


  * possibly idea for sequel, Duke meeting his abuser, with Audrey and Duke protecting him at first but later Duke confronting them on his own.  Simon?  (half-wolf half-man unnatural monstrosity, his own body fighting to be one or the other.)  Dwight’s reason for being a hunter is that Simon killed Lizzie.  Dwight tracked Simon and killed him (or so he thought) and then started tracking down Simon’s sons (was going to get around to killing all werewolves eventually, or at least as many as he could before they took him down).  He was on Wade’s trail when he heard about the Haven murders, but by the time he got there Wade was dead, the town was safe.  He learned about Duke (and thought he might have committed said murders?) but the gulls have already done off to…dunno, San Diego or somewhere.  So he tracks them there and causes trouble.  In the end when Simon does show up, Duke is terrified at first and Audrey and Nate step in to protect him, which of course is about to go all to hell when Duke steps in – maybe he can’t fight, just takes the blow that would have killed them?  And when all looks lost Dwight steps up behind Simon and blows his head to smithereens. [better idea – Duke and Dwight have to fight Simon together] Also, maybe Jennifer really is Duke’s little sister, it would be nice for him to have some non-psychotic family.  She can still be an extra-planar communication specialist if she’s Simon’s daughter by some non-wolf/non-human mother and ended up being whatever her mother is instead of a werewolf – fallen angel, maybe?  Fae?  Maybe they straight-up don’t know what Jen’s mom was



Races to potentially include: vampires, merfolk, succubi/incubi, ogres and goblins, troll, fae, demons, skinwalkers, banshee, wendigo, sasquatch, kitsune, dwarves, gnomes, dryads, naga, centaurs, sirens (Beattie?  But we already have her in the first story as human) (and werewolves, of course!)  great resource for supernatural beings and creatures worldwide [ http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/155803256042/in-which-diversity-isnt-a-myth](http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/155803256042/in-which-diversity-isnt-a-myth) )

Possible case ideas:  A vampire using Renfields to stake his brethren during daylight  (territory acquisition/eliminating competition).  Rogue incubus killing people (Nathan being demisexual helps?)  Fae contractual dispute.  Territorial dispute between wendigo and sasquatch.  Dryad’s forest being cut down by dwarven industry.  I like the idea of skinwalkers having a strict code of honesty and needing help against one of their own who’s broken it, but storylines where you never know who’s really who make me nuts.  A selkie whose skin has been stolen, or a dragon whose hoard is gone.  Someone drugging or poisoning merfolk by dumping something in the water (someone doing it to vampires by somehow affecting the people they feed on?  Intriguing, but how?)  Someone going around ‘outing’ supernaturals (to the public?  To hunters?  If the former, maybe no one’s believed it yet but they’re worried people will start to).  Supernatural protection racket?  Some sort of fraud like anti-hunter protection charms or supernatural snake oil.  Enslavement or extermination of one supernatural group by one or more members of another.  A supernatural group whose leader is corrupt and they don’t know how to get rid of him but they don’t like what he is doing (a werewolf pack with a bad alpha?  Could be a chance for Duke to confront his abuser.  Once Duke has proven unafraid, alpha showdown between abusive jerk and Audrey, which Audrey wins simply be being un-intimidatable : )  A group of supernaturals asking for intercession against a hunter. 

Timeline:

Early:

Audrey (and Nathan) moving in properly

Claire’s intro

Talking about how any lone wolf they encounter is going to get adopted at least for a while

Duke's first full moon where he lets Audrey and Nathan stay with him (1 st post-Wade)

Audrey will ask if being part of a wolf pack affects them

Duke's first full moon outside the panic room

Duke learning to break the rituals that caused him trauma in the past (ie, undressing)

Duke talking about how hard it is to accept the wolf/Audrey says changing could be less painful

Centaur kidnapping

Discussion of whether to turn Nathan/Audrey [immediate after centaur kidnapping]

Middle-early:

Lunch scene at the station

Dealing with Wade’s estate

Duke admitting how afraid he is of becoming like his father/brother [Wade’s letter]

Middle:

Duke being willing to transform to help others

Duke realizing transforming is becoming less painful- because he's not fighting it tooth and nail

Duke telling Audrey how much he appreciates that his role in the agency isn't simply 'muscle'

Discussion of the role of an Alpha and how Audrey fits it

Wolf!Duke sitting on a monster and getting bitten all to hell

Duke encountering the abusive ex/talking about Mara

Ogre case

Adopting some lone wolf

Finding a child abuser

Ugly baby cooed over by Nathan

Audrey prime?

Late:

Wolf and vampire war (so hunter’s ominous threat/Vickie coming to Haven tie in w/pt 3 themes)

Confronting Dwight and negotiations with him

Audrey and Nathan discussing introducing romance

OT3 negotiation and first sex scene

Nathan and Duke’s first time sex Duke on top, first time Nathan on top

FIND A PLACE:

Jennifer’s introduction

Unresolved questions – when do I want to introduce Jennifer?  Are the gulls together romantically when Dwight shows up? (I’d say yes, because the scene with them trying to protect Duke from Dwight can *definitely* be read as them protecting their lover).  Duke’s first heat could be after the confrontation with Dwight.  Try not to put too much stuff after Simon!  Simon has to be before Nathan gets turned though!

I need to have the three of them sit down and talk about whether Duke will ever turn Audrey or Nate (at Duke’s instigation – maybe after the first case, prompted by the shotgun-wielding asshole kidnapper?)  This is something Duke will struggle with, because pretty much everything about being a werewolf made him perfectly miserable until he met them, and he'd be terrified they might ever have to go through any of it, but he's also kind of terrified of them going into supernatural policing as squishy humans.  They could have something equivalent to a living will – they agree ahead of time that if they're dying and it's the only way to save them, then they'll take that step.  It’s an imperfect solution - the problem there is that Duke has to be there, which typically would preclude them getting hurt in the first place. But it would work for anything that isn’t immediately (or very quickly) fatal, and it’s something they can all agree for the time being.   If one of them gets bitten by a naga (Nathan), maybe Duke has to turn them to save their life.  A werewolf can survive it but there’s no known antidote that would help a human.  (so then Audrey will have her two big scary werewolf boys and she will be the scariest of them all : )  They will like that too, because then at least one of them can always be there with her when dangerous stuff is happening.  Mental image - the end of a full moon night, both huge wolves tired out from their romp in the woods, flopping down into a big puppy-pile with Audrey stretched out on top)

If they are supernatural law enforcement, the types of ‘crimes’ they might be called upon to deal with may include: murder, theft, kidnapping, assault (including drugging/poisoning), arson and other crimes involving destruction of property, sex crimes, impersonation, extortion, treason/espionage, fraud, hate crimes, enslavement, corruption, stalking

  * At some point Audrey will ask if being part of a wolf pack affects them.  Duke explains about having a mild version of pack sense, increased desire for and comfort with physical contact, preference for one another’s company, slight increase to senses/speed/strength/stamina/reflexes, resilience to disease, faster healing. – pack sense: as a werewolf, Duke always has some sense of where his pack members are and how they're doing.  No details, but enough to know his pack is well and in a familiar safe place, or alternatively to know that they're in trouble and where to find them (at least closely enough for his other senses to take over).  Nathan and Audrey won't be able to do that, but if one of the other two is in trouble then they'll get a nagging sense that something's wrong and they ought to check on them - which will increase in urgency if ignored
  * the more and more Duke willingly shifts into wolf form, whether it's to protect his pack, to comfort traumatized supernaturals, or to play with kids, the less painful the transformation will become, because he's not fighting it anymore, he's becoming at home in his other skin.  it will take some time to get used to the idea of the wolf as protector instead of monster, but he will get there. 
  * Duke slowly building self-worth on the repeated reinforcement that is a good person - a good provider, a good protector, eventually a good father.  the idea that he deserves to be treated well, that this is not simply reliant on the kindness of Audrey and Nathan, they are not the exception.
  * Duke cooking, feeling good about providing for his pack
  * "After Duke had insisted on still needing the safe room, Audrey had insisted on making some improvements.  A couple layers of old couch cushions now covered the floor, and assorted small pillows and blankets were scattered around.  Old flannel sheets had been glued up to cover both the sight and the chill of the gouged metal walls and heavy door." Consider how much of a comfort that much have been when Duke was changing.  Like, that must be painful and traumatic enough without having in happen on cold bare metal.  I'm picturing Duke going on there and snuggling among all the soft blankets and pillows for comfort to wait for moonrise.  It would make a big difference mentally as well as physically - for one things the changes are visible, tangible evidence of how much they care about him how much they worry about him, how much they want him to be as comfortable as possible, how much they value that.  And while he still gets naked, being able to wrap up on a warm thick blanket would soften the dehumanization.
  * character development stuff: Duke's first full moon outside the panic room or where he lets Audrey and Nathan stay with him, or him finding out that the change isn't as painful when he's not fighting it tooth and nail, or him learning to break the rituals that caused him trauma in the past (ie, undressing for the full moon) or talking with Audrey and Nathan about how afraid he is of becoming like his father and brother, or telling Audrey how much he appreciates that his role in the agency isn't simply 'muscle', or any discussion of the role of an Alpha an how Audrey fits it, or how any lone wolf they encounter is going to get adopted at least for a while, plus actual discussions of romance and sex scenes


  * About Dwight – as a hunter, he is not without conscience.  Other than the Crockers, he only hunts supernaturals that are known to be a threat, he's not a xenophobic wipe-them-all-out kind of hunter.  He feels that his daughter would not have wanted him to become a blind murderer.  Protecting people, yes, keeping anyone else from being hurt, and families from having to mourn for lost loved ones, that's okay.  But he's come to understand that supernaturals are not all monsters.  This did take some time, he did go through a 'wipe them all out' phase, and now he has to carry that blood on his hands.  He didn’t know at first that not all supernaturals are monsters, and was full of rage.  Which ironically means he’s killed more innocents than Duke has.  He was horrified to realize it, to see that he’d become no better than his daughter’s murderer (well, a little better – even with supernaturals, he never would have killed children.  No matter how ugly or scary or even legitimately dangerous - ogre kids, werewolf cubs, naga hatchlings, banshee toddlers **-** he wouldn't have been able to lift a finger against a child.  Maybe that's what snapped him out of it in the end – he was about to finish off something supernatural when a little kid version of it comes running out crying to him to stop hurting its daddy.  The father desperately cries for the child to run, terrified Dwight will kill them, and Dwight would flash back to telling Lizzie to run, and be sick at what he’d been about to do.  What he had done to so many others.  Maybe since then **,** he's tried to make up for it by finding supernaturals orphaned by hunters and finding them adoptive homes.  (At least in supernatural cultures where that's a thing.  I imagine not all supernatural cultures have the same nuclear family structure humans do.)  Or, maybe at some point later on down the road, some lawyer comes to town with a baby girl and a will that asks him to find adoptive parents in Haven because their baby will be safe there, and Dwight feels like maybe he's ready for a second chance.  (the girl won't be Lizzie, he knows that, he wouldn't want her to be, but he'll love her for whoever she turns out to be and not as an echo of the daughter he lost).  Ooh, or Dwight takes in the Benton sisters, who’ve just barely managed to flee to Haven as instructed by their dying parents.  They’d have to not be wendigos though, because cannibalism is inherent to wendigos and I’m not putting cannibalism into this verse sorry not sorry.  Banshees? : )


  * Duke learning to be a wolf, because he was never in any stable healthy pack environment long enough to be himself when he changed.  He struggles with this because at this point he had an ingrained fear of the Change, driven into him by a lifetime of equating the wolf with mindless murderousness.  Even though he knows in theory that it’s possible, he can’t really conceive of his wolf self just lying around contentedly with Audrey and Nate or playing with them in the woods like a puppy.  Audrey theorizes that maybe the change would be less painful if Duke wasn’t fighting it, that it’d be easier if he just let it happen.  She’s right.  Duke doesn’t trust himself at first, maybe stages – first he locks himself in the room alone, then with the two of them?  At some point they should be in the panic room with him.  The door opens inward for added security, so they can crack it open to see if he’s okay without risking his escape if he’s not.
  * look for notes from the first fic that you might want to include here



Titles for the trilogy:

By Moonlight Cold and Clear

In Sunlight Strong and Golden

And Starlight Faint and Silver

[any and every lone wolf they come across is going to get adopted for a little while, comforted and coddled and heart-healed until they either find a good healthy loving pack to join or become a permanent part of the gulls' pack.  and abused kids, omg, woe betide any child abuser they come across! Duke will put the fear of god into them, and honestly the only thing stopping him from ripping them to bloody shreds is only knowing that Audrey and Nate wouldn't want him to be a killer.  Duke will warn Audrey and Nathan that he'll be like that, because they're his pack and he can't just adopt lone wolves without their okay, but at the same time he needs them to be okay with it because he just can't *not* do this.  and when he tells them, all worried that they're not going to be okay with it, they're just like 'of course we'll help them, what else would we do?' and he falls in love with them all over again.  Not just because they're willing to do this but because they *get it*, they understand how much he needs to do this and they don't hesitate.  And they wouldn't hesitate to help lone wolves even if Duke didn't need it, because that's just how they are.  That's what they did for him, after all : )]

**

From the scene with Duke’s first change with Audrey and Nathan there, before I forgot that for plot reasons I made the panic room soundproof

> When the night of the full moon came Duke was still uneasy about the idea, but he kept telling himself that things would be fine.  “Okay, so if you don’t hear movement inside, that means I’m done changing and I’m not rampaging around.  The secret knock, courtesy of Nathan’s bad sense of humor, is ‘shave and a haircut’.  We’re doing it twice just in case the first time is a fluke, if I respond correctly both times then it’s safe to crack the door open –  _ just _ a crack. 
> 
> …
> 
> The door closed with a heavy, ominously final-sounding thud.  It muffled the sounds of the Change but didn’t completely mute them, and the cracks of bone and cries of pain made Nathan and Audrey wince.  They waited for silence.
> 
> Once they were sure there was no further sound and the thick walls weren’t just muffling it, they gave the knock and received the right answer in muffled thumps both times.  They eased the door open an inch cautiously and nothing happened, so they slowly swung it the rest of the way open, stepping inside quickly and shutting it behind them.

  * Actually do have something about Duke going out to clean out the estate
  * finding mementos and photos from their childhood
  * finding letter Wade wrote to Duke when he realized he was starting to go off the rails
  * one of the things in the letter is about how it was actually a hunter that killed their dad and Wade's gonna go try to find him and if he doesn't succeed then Duke should try to avenge their father's murder
  * Duke will *not* be okay with that.  In fact he will agree that Simon’s murder was almost certainly necessary.
  * Duke is so terrified of becoming like his father and brother, even though he knows he has a good healthy pack now to anchor him.  He will go to great lengths to avoid killing, even in defense of innocents.  (When you compound that fear with his absolutely adamant belief that it's okay for him to be hurt but *never* for him to hurt others, you get situations like Wade where Duke is just trying to non-lethally contain a threat even if said threat is going its damndest to attack him.  I don't think that’s the last instance of that they'll see. (Although luckily in most cases Duke will heal)
  * When he and Dwight come face to face, this will turn out very differently than Wade wanted (maybe add something to scene as a callback to this?)
  * wolf!Duke sitting on a monster that's pissed as hell and keeps biting him, until Audrey storms over and smacks it on the head and sternly orders it to cut that out!
  * Audrey could have had a fearsome reputation simply because she has a werewolf backing her.  I think if Audrey wanted to, she could absolutely do to him what Mara did, maybe even to the point where Duke willingly would effectively be her attack dog.  but she *never will*.  Duke will never simply be her thug.  This is why Duke's role in the agency is ‘supernatural expert and non-human liaison’, not 'muscle' [maybe include something in the scene where he talks about Mara where Duke says how grateful he is that even though by rights he should be the agency’s ‘enforcer’, they have never asked him to be that, they gave him the role of a diplomat instead. (which is not to say that he won't voluntarily play big and scary if he feels someone needs intimidating, because better to prevent a fight than win one)
  * Audrey's reputation as someone to be feared is purely her own, from her strength of character and determination.
  * Once Duke gets comfortable being a wolf any old time, Audrey and Nate will take to using him as a cuddle-pillow.  he'll love this, as much as he might make a token whine of protest.  Audrey and Nate having fallen asleep watching a movie together, and when it's time to wake up and go to bed Audrey sleepily begging to ride on Duke's back so she doesn't have to get up.  Duke will, of course, oblige her.  and then probably have to go back for Nathan, who sleeps like a log and wouldn't wake if there was an earthquake.  And he might grumble in a canine sort of way, but really it makes him happy to take care of them.



Deleted bit from the scene where Duke is trying to research what Simon might have done that got him killed

> But Duke remembered his father very well. 
> 
> Remembered the same burning fanaticism he’d seen in Wade’s eyes, the same twisted insistence on not needing a pack.  Remembered how he’d left for the last time long before word of his death had trickled back to his sons.
> 
> It was far too easy to believe that Simon had fallen to the same sick impulses that had consumed Wade.  It might have been a hunter he’d killed, one who was blindly targeting any werewolves he came across without knowing whether they actually posed a threat.  But it could have just as easily been an innocent.  Someone like

Original opening of the scene with Duke’s first full moon on the island:

> The island Duke took them to was not what Audrey thought of as a small island – not one of the little heaps of rocks with a few scraggly trees that dotted the coast, but a place large enough to have a decrepit, long-abandoned resort among the fields of sea grass and thick pine woods.  They took a little speedboat in from the Rouge, tying it up at the dock that had once served ferries of tourists.
> 
> The first order of business was, of course, to do a systematic search of the island and make sure it really was as deserted as it looked.  Not a soul was found, and Duke confirmed there was no human scent beyond the ancient traces lingering in enclosed areas of the decaying resort. 

(I really *really* liked the idea of having the island be Carpenter’s Knot, but in the end I decided that if the resort were there then they’d need to search it thoroughly to make sure there weren’t any humans there for Duke to hurt, and it just make more sense for them to choose an uninhabited island)

**

Fun fact:  this scene became my standalone fic [ Apparel Appeal](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6123217/chapters/14984233)

Nathan crashes at the Rouge one night when it gets late and he doesn't want to bother going back home.  In the morning Duke offers him a fresh t-shirt to wear home so it doesn't look quite so much like a walk of shame.  The t-shirt Nathan wore the night before stays on the floor of Duke's bedroom because Nathan can't be bothered to bring it back home (and maybe he's in a hurry because he accidentally slept in because he was just so comfortable and at home).  And just maybe later when Duke’s picking up he likes that the shirt still has Nate's scent, and give into the impulse to wear it for a bit (maybe he kind of find it sexy).  Nathan unexpectedly pops in for lunch and decides that he really, really likes Duke wearing his clothes : ) 

Nathan paused, looking down at Duke’s chest.  Duke looked down too, at Nathan’s t-shirt.  “Uh…I’d say ‘this isn’t what it looks like’ but…yeah, it’s pretty much exactly what it looks like.  Sorry?”

[Duke’s POV] “...You know what, this doesn’t even register on my weirdness meter anymore.” Nathan said.  But he didn’t look indifferent, he looked…intense.  There was a faint flush across his cheekbones that Duke had thought was embarrassment, but…surely that wasn’t a hint of arousal in his scent?

[Nate’s POV] Nathan hoped he wasn’t staring, trying to find something offhanded to say and coming up with “...You know what, this doesn’t even register on my weirdness meter anymore.” There was just…something about Duke wearing his clothes, something that spoke to a possessive, primal part of Nathan’s brain that he hadn’t even know he had.

[how to handle the fact that, in light of Duke’s past abuse, Nate would probably be horrified at feeling this way? Maybe he doesn’t realize that’s why he liked it so much?  Scene needs to be from Duke’s POV anyway probably so I wouldn’t be exploring Nate’s thoughts but that doesn’t mean I can dismiss them (this is why I ultimately abandoned the scene, apparently I’d forgotten that Nathan lives on the Rouge at this point, thus invalidating the whole idea, LOL)]

Maybe Audrey walks in on them eye-fucking and that’s what prompts her to have the talk with Nathan about taking their relationship from pack to romance and sex?

**

This was meant to be the second case they took, but I never could figure out a resolution for it.  Which makes me sad because I *love* the bit with Audrey being the alpha badass : )  Chauncey the erudite ogre is from an original RP of mine, I couldn’t resist.]

> “An old friend emailed me, we might have another case.” Duke said that night over dinner.
> 
> “Might?” Nathan asked.
> 
> “Well…it’s ogres.  That’s risky.”
> 
> “Are they pretty aggressive?” Audrey wanted to know.
> 
> “They’re not exactly peaceable, but more importantly they’re one of the few supernaturals who can match werewolves for brute strength.  If things go bad I can’t be sure of getting us all out of there.”
> 
> Audrey frowned.  Knowing Duke, that meant he’d sacrifice himself to give them a chance to run.  “How likely are things to go bad?”
> 
> “To be fair, Chauncey wouldn’t have contacted me if he thought I – or either of you – would be in danger.  Apparently the ogre’s clan keeps getting raided by goblins, which are too small and quick for the ogres to catch or kill, and too clever for them to keep out.  They’re frustrated, which is touchy, but they’d welcome a solution.”
> 
> “What background can you give me on ogres and goblins?  And Chauncey, for that matter,” Audrey asked.
> 
> “Ogres are twelve feet tall, give or take a few, ugly as fried sin, generally unintelligent and crude, and they despise weakness.  Chauncey is one himself, but he only meets the first two criteria. He’s remarkably intelligent for an ogre, and he decided that sitting around the woods eating rocks and raw meat wasn’t enough for him, so he went out and learned as much as he could on his own.  I was his book supplier for a long time.  Still send them his way sometimes, when I find something I think he’ll like.  He’s well-read, well-spoken, and better with technology than any ogre ever born.  Also absolutely trustworthy – he feels he owes me for helping him educate himself, however often I tell him he doesn’t.  Goblins are…kind of considered the vermin of the supernatural world.  They’re maybe a foot tall, humanoid, also as ugly as sin, very clever in a self-serving cunning sort of way.  They only ever scavenge, they don’t hunt, farm, trade, or craft goods.”

[more discussion here, then meeting Chauncey]

> The leader of the ogres was at least fifteen feet tall, and as ugly as Duke had said.  He leaned down to sniff Duke, his small, blood-red eyes narrowed.
> 
> “Wolf, but not alpha.  I will not speak with you,” he rumbled dismissively, lifting a hand as if to swat Duke out of the way.
> 
> “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him,” Audrey snapped out.
> 
> The leader paused, swinging ponderously around to squint at her.  “This, alpha?  Human.  Female,” he said scornfully.
> 
> “I may be human and female, but you will respect me and you will respect my pack.” Audrey stared coldly at the ogre towering over her, not backing down one inch.  “If you can’t do that then we’re done here, and you can go back to dealing with the goblin problem on your own.  How was that working out for you?”
> 
> The ogre stared at her for a moment, then broke into a chuckle that sounded like a landslide.  “Alpha, yes.  I will speak with you.”

[goblins are new to the area, driven out of former territories by…idk, feral colony of cats?  Audrey negotiates symbiosis with ogres – because they’re small and quick and clever, they can do thinks the ogres are too large and slow and clumsy to do.  Run messages, flush out prey that would have been long since scared off by an ogre’s approach – pick off ticks and leeches like an oxpecker?  Hunt other smaller vermin like rats.  Scout new areas.  Be their eyes, if ogre eyesight is poor – maybe Chauncey wears glasses? : )  The problem with this is that it would benefit the ogres and they’d be okay with the arrangement, but I don’t see what the goblins get out of this if they’re already running rings around the ogres.

  
  


  * Nate and Audrey already know that Duke undressing for the Change is part of the monthly ritual of locking himself in, and they realize that just that act alone is something that Duke has come to dread because of this association (undressing specifically for the change, that is, not undressing in general).  So they decide that on the afternoons before a full moon they'll coax Duke into bed and takes his mind off things with fun sexytimes until the change is getting close enough that there's no point in Duke bothering to get dressed again beforehand.  That way he's already naked, so no stressful undressing : ) 


  * don't forget to add the bit about changing willingly being a good kind of pain


  * Duke explaining pack structure:  "All that alpha-male macho crap you see in supernatural fiction is just as much bullshit as the lone-wolf stuff.  In a healthy, normal pack the alpha's job is to nurture and care for the pack as much as to protect and lead it.  Many alphas are female, but it's not at all uncommon to see affectionate nurturing male alphas.  Gender roles are actually pretty different among werewolves, at least healthy normal ones.  There are certainly exceptions, of course, wolves who buy into the bullshit like my old man."



Mara as one of Duke’s abusers?  Possibly even the worst of them, because the ones who beat him were nowhere near as bad as the way she twisted him up and ruined him.  Maybe Duke talks about this after a showdown with one of the big brutal abusers where Duke has less of a problem standing up to him, and admits Mara is the one he’d really fear

Someone needs to point out how amusing it is that Duke, who is big and scary and a supernatural tank, is really a big softy and it is little, ordinary, she-human Audrey who is the one you have to *really* watch out for.  (also the alpha, totally).  This may be part of the reputation they are starting to get.  Because Duke will want to help and comfort every scared or lonely or hurting supernatural he comes across, because he knows what it is to feel that way and he doesn't ever want anyone else to have to.  But god help you if Audrey Parker thinks you have done wrong.  She does not care what manner of being you are or how easily you could squish her into jelly, she will hunt you down and see justice done.  *Especially* god help you if you try to hurt her boys.

Related: Duke's inclination to provide comfort may help him be at ease with being a wolf.  There will be a lot of supernaturals like the centaur girl who will be more at ease with a wolf - even a huge one - than humans.  He will willingly change if some traumatized supernatural needs a soft warm teddy-wolf to hug : )

**

At some point include a scene with some ridiculously ugly supernatural baby - like a sasquatch baby or something - and Nathan still melting into goo because who cares how the baby looks, it's a *baby* and it's *adorable*.  Naturally Duke and Audrey find this hilarious.  [side note:  Dwight as *actual* sasquatch?  (later edit: can’t because of how Dwight’s backstory developed but that still would have been amazing)

Note: at some point there need to be a scene between Nate and Audrey discussing whether they want romance or just being pack, and if so how they’re going to handle this in light of Duke’s abuse.

[Note: As to whether Duke actually is a victim of sexual abuse.  It was never part of his parents’ abuse.  During the domestic abuse, he never actually told anyone no but he did voluntarily participate in sexual acts he did not actually desire of his own accord, either because of fears that his abuser would abandon him if he didn’t keep them satisfied (not all of his abusers encouraged that fear, but some did imply or even explicitly state the threat), or to avoid ill treatment, or both.  It’s important to note that in Duke’s eyes, this would not constitute rape – he thinks that because he didn’t say no, it doesn’t count as nonconsensual.  He views it as being equivalent to his mother’s prostitution, just with non-monetary payment for sexually servicing his abuser(s).  However, both Nathan and Audrey absolutely *would* consider it rape (and correctly so), because he was put in a position where he could not say no even if he wanted to.  Consent given under coercion is not valid consent, and emotional coercion is still coercion.

Duke has never felt safe and loved during sex.  Not all the sex he’s had has been bad, he’s had some enthusiastic encounters, but never with anyone he loved and trusted.]

[Note: Reasons werewolves prefer to date outside their pack – limited selection, if things go wrong it’s bad]

[After deciding to be mates]

  * [at some point, point out that a lot of wolves are basically nudists (at least at the full moon) because of the changing.  Nate and Audrey are A-ok with this – maybe use this as a joke somewhere?]


  * Once the idea of them being mates comes up, have Nathan (or Duke) ask the other dubiously ‘are you even attracted to me’ and get a response of ‘Do I have a pulse?  Yes?  Then I’m attracted to you’.  Duke never revealed his inclinations towards men because Haven hated him enough as it was, and Nathan was confused about/afraid of his feelings for Duke and wrote them off because he was young and dumb and didn’t want to be ‘that way’ and he was never attracted to any other guys so he just told himself he was confused.



**

 

[random snippet of the first time Nathan fucks Duke]

> "I'm not fragile, Nate, you don't have to treat me like I'm made of spun glass."
> 
> "I'd never think you're fragile, Duke, you're stronger than I'll ever be,” Nathan said quietly.  “But you are dear to me, and that's how I'll always treat you.  I don't want even the smallest chance this will be uncomfortable for you, let alone painful.  I want you to feel nothing but good."
> 
> Duke reached up and cupped his hand around the nape of Nathan’s neck, drawing him close for a passionate kiss.  When they broke for air, he said breathlessly, “I want you in me, Nate, right now.”
> 
> “Yeah, okay,” Nathan agreed, breathless himself.  He pulled his fingers free and slicked himself.  Duke, impatient, wrapped his legs around Nathan’s hips and reached down to align him.  Nathan leaned down for another kiss – soft and tender this time – as he slowly pressed inside.
> 
> Duke moaned against Nathan’s lips, and Nathan drew back to ask, “Not hurting you, am I?”
> 
> “Furthest thing from it,” Duke assured him, arching up to press against him.
> 
> Nathan gave a little choked sound, beginning a gentle, rocking pace.  “Love you, Duke,” he said quietly.  “Think I always have, even when things got bad between us.  Can’t imagine ever not wanting you.  I’ll never hurt you again, nor let anyone else.  You’ll always be safe and happy, if I have anything to say.  Won’t ever let a day go by that you don’t know how loved you are.  Won’t ever let you doubt you deserve that love.”

**

Notes on the vampire case

  * Vampires are being imprisoned and starved until they’re feral with hunger – one bites Duke and almost drains him **,** it’s only Duke’s healing that lets him survive it but it takes a lot out of him.  But Duke stops Audrey and Nate from interceding, because it’s not the vampire’s fault, and even if they pry the vampire off of Duke it’ll just attack someone else.  Nathan and Audrey have to bring Duke water and liver so his healing can replace the blood he’s losing.  Maybe this storyline can be an actual example of a hunter trying to turn a community against supernaturals – when they find him he tells Duke he has no idea what’s coming for him, but death is on his trail and will never rest until it finds him (referring to Dwight).  Maybe the hunter is trying to break up a vampire/werewolf alliance – if a vampire’s hungry enough it might even be able to kill a wolf, if it drains him faster than his healing ability can keep up.
  * [the hunter is staking the vampires after the attacks so they can’t say what happened to them.  There are no bodies to find because vampires just turn into ash.  The wolves don’t believe those vampires are missing, they think the other vampires are protecting them.  When Duke is attacked, the hunter sees what they’re doing and decides to kill them all so they can’t expose him (or at least kill the vampire).  They stop this and that’s how they find out what’s going on.  Then they have to find the hunter.  Maybe there’s not a lot of mystery solving, maybe the hunter sics the vampire on them early on because he’s heard about them and doesn’t want them figuring out what he’s up to.  He figures if Duke is killed the other two will either leave or blame the vampires also (after killing the one that attacked Duke so he won’t expose him)  - takes place in a community of  mixed vampires and werewolves
  * Vickie’s father - make sure to include note about how he’s her adoptive father since vampires don’t reproduce; it’s typical in vampire communities for an elder members to mentor and adopt fledglings, even ones not their own – this prevents new vampires from going insane with bloodlust – kind of like lone wolves locking themselves up at the full moon
  * maybe one of the alphas there actually invites Duke to join their pack?]



Notes on the heat scene

[werewolves who have mates go into heat, because of course they do.  Duke’s first is a day that Audrey and Nathan have off, they were going to have a dinner date.  Duke texts them to warn them he’s gone into heat and that he’ll understand if they want to cancel.  Instead they drop everything and come right over.  Duke is either already touching himself or trying really hard not to.  Audrey takes one of the roses they brought and trails it down Duke’s neck – that alone is enough to make him come]

[Nathan lets Duke fuck him – he’s not hard again yet but he enjoys it, is half hard by the end.  Audrey’s told Duke to wear a condom for it so she can use her mouth on him next – Duke tells Nathan to hurry and go clean up so Duke can do the same for him.  Nathan does, and this time he gets the rest of the way hard and does come.  Audrey finger-fucks Duke while she’s sucking him off and he loves it so much that she ponders aloud getting a strap-on for next time – the suggestion gets Duke off, so clearly he approves.  Audrey and Nate swap places so that Nathan’s sucking Duke off and Duke’s pleasuring Audrey with his mouth, which they all enjoy.  Various permutations ensue until everyone’s pretty well worn out, Nathan’s barely half hard but he’s still enjoying kissing and touching Duke so much, the way he feels and tastes and smells, can’t get enough of him [he or Duke murmurs ‘one more time’?] he can’t resist sliding inside one more time, slipping in so easily since Duke is so well fucked at this point, slick and loose as if he were made to take Nathan.  They rock together slowly, dreamily, barely moving, mostly just enjoying being joined.  Duke has one more climax – he comes dry by this point.  He’s so blissful and dazed that he seems almost drugged.  Audrey and Nate wearily but happily clean him up and cuddle him until they all fall asleep.

**And Starlight Slight and Silver**

Main themes –

(plot) Haven becoming a haven for supernaturals, large scale conflict led by Simon – climax: Simon

(character development) Duke becoming a confident and ‘out’ member of the community, the Gulls expanding their pack

Scenes to include:

Selkie refugees

Duke taking point on the supernatural refugees

Mention of Dwight never hurting supernatural kids

Forming the Guard (Jordan)

Dwight reflecting on how important it is to him to protect Haven

Duke playing with kids

Duke’s first heat & aftercare

Wizard encounter

Nathan getting turned & being a fail!wolf

Playful romping in the woods after Nathan is turned

Simon appears – climactic battle

Dwight adopting or having a new kid

Threegulls adopting foundling twins left on their doorstep

Because the Gulls are based out of Haven, it consequently becomes an actual haven for supernatural beings - as their reputation grows, word gets around the supernatural communities that there is a safe place, free of lawlessness, where there are rules to protect the innocent and consequences for the evil, where supernaturals can find support and, in time, live openly [idea courtesy of [ Jadzibelle](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzibelle/pseuds/Jadzibelle) ].  Hunter!Dwight  (former foe, now an ally) becomes chief of police and runs things when the threegulls are sailing around the world on the Rouge to tackle cases in faraway exotic locales. The Guard could be an *actual* guard, protecting the supernaturals of the town (and the humans).  In this ‘verse you could have a guard composed of both supernaturals who are capable and willing to defend humans as well as other supernaturals, and former hunters like Dwight, who have never been the kind to kill indiscriminately and only take on the supernatural when there's a genuine threat to innocent lives.  I think you'd need that balance, both the human and the supernatural representation.  When Duke is in town and not otherwise occupied as liaison/diplomat/muscle, he is going to help every last traumatized, abused, and scared supernatural refugee that seeks safety there.

**

Simon - half-wolf half-man unnatural monstrosity, constantly Changing, he has rejected his own nature for so long, so consumed with this poisonous ideal he's striving for, that his own body is literally fighting itself to be one or the other.  In the end when Simon does show up, Duke is terrified at first and Audrey and Nate step in to protect him, which of course is about to go all to hell when Duke steps in – maybe he can’t fight, just takes the blow that would have killed them?  And when all looks lost Dwight steps up behind Simon and blows his head to smithereens. [better idea – Duke and Dwight have to fight Simon together – the point being that Duke isn’t alone anymore, he has pack and he has allies]

Simon might have gotten Nathan out of the way before confronting Duke?  (he wouldn’t do it for Audrey because he’d consider her weak and no threat)

**

Jordan could be some variant of a succubus, her touch painful because it drains life – maybe she ends ups up dating Vickie, who has no life to drain.  Would make an interesting couple, angry Jordan and sweet Vickie.  Jordan’s anger just dissipating whenever her little ball of sunshine shows up. Jordan becoming less angry overall over time for having such a sweet loving girlfriend.  And god help anyone who tries to come after Vickie.  Jordan being all growly over something and giving Duke a hard time, and Duke subtly texting Vickie to come deal with her angry girlfriend, and a little bit later Vickie shows up with her bright smile and hugs Jordan and Jordan worriedly asks if she's okay and Vickie says she's fine, she just wanted to see Jordan, and wouldn't it be nice to have a nice cozy movie night on the couch at home, and Jordan's looking between her and Duke, kind of torn because she really was mad at him, but in the end she just mutters something like 'you're not worth it' and goes home with Vickie

**

At some point, once Haven gets to be a place where supernaturals come for refuge, Audrey and Nathan are going to be looking for Duke and find him in his wolf form just absolutely swarmed by little supernatural kids, allowing them to climb all over him and even pretend to ride him like a horsie.  He will give Audrey and Nathan a long-suffering look that says 'rescue me' but it is all a sham, he adores the kids.  Audrey and Nathan will be so happy and proud, because Duke used to be so afraid of his wolf self that he stayed locked up even when he *knew* he could maintain control, he would never have let himself within ten miles of children.  And now he is their nanny/puppy-dog/jungle-gym.  (Imagine him with a werewolf pup - his own or someone else's, either way - this little wolf puppy gnawing determinedly on his ankles or tugging at his tail, and he'll fall down dramatically pretending this is a mortal wound, lying still while the pup clambers atop him and gives this little high-pitched puppy-howl of triumph).  The kids’ mothers would say stuff like how good he is with kids and what a great father he'd be, and that will mean the world to Duke because the idea of being a father is something that's always scared him because he'd terrified he'd be like his own father.  (Audrey and Nate would agree with the moms’ assessment if he asked, but I don't know if they'd say it unprompted because they wouldn't want to risk him feeling pressured by it.)

Imagine how much demand there will be for Duke at Halloween for all the little girls who want to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood.  And he's like “just as long as no one tries to dress me in granny's nightgown”.  But some devastatingly adorable tiny girl gives him with most hopeful puppy eyes and the sweetest smile, and he finds himself in not only a flowery old-fashioned nightgown but with a nightcap and bifocals too.  And the *look* he gives Audrey and Nathan when they see him and crack up…if any cameras/phones come out he might just eat the stupid things.  (And since really there's no fair way of deciding which Red Riding Hood gets the wolf, he ends up escorting a whole flock of little red-caped girls - whose parents can rest easy at home, knowing that their daughters could not be safer.)  Afterwards he insists that the whole affair will never again be spoken of, and yet next year the same thing happens : ) 

And you know, all the rest of the year he must be so popular with all the kids who really, really, *really* want a dog but can't have one for one reason or another.

**

[also, since Dwight has  **s** tarted seeing supernaturals with an open mind, he’s seen the power of pack bonds himself.  Maybe he realizes solitude had caused the madness of the Crocker curse, and not bloodlines.]

 

Maybe protecting Haven becomes important to Dwight because it’s a way to atone for the innocent supernatural lives he’d taken  **i** n his blind rage and grief after Lizzie’s death, before he’d known the difference between inhuman and monstrous.  Because after the incident with the fae family he’d only ever killed at need, but he never found a way to really make amends for what he had already done, and that never sat right with him, because it wasn’t enough to change and be better, without making right the harm done.  But he didn’t know how, because he knew that in the eyes of any survivors he might have left behind, he’s be as monstrous as Simon ever was, and they would justly hate and fear him.  He couldn’t go back, and they would never accept any apology or penance he could offer (and no apology could make it right, either).  But this, protecting supernaturals from the things that threaten them, whether that’s hunters, other humans, or fellow non-humans…that, that feels like he’s finally able to make reparations, and he’s glad of it.  It feels like what Lizzie would have wanted **.** Maybe Jennifer is able to give them a chance to talk.   He would eb so happy but also so devastated, especially Jennifer so gently telling him that this will be the only time they can do this, because she knows from hard experience that if people keep having conversations with the dead then they neglect the living (maybe after she realized she wasn't just crazy, she made money by being a traveling medium) Big rugged Dwight sobbing his heart out and tiny little Jennifer hugging him and offering tissues.  Maybe he wants to do something nice for her later, as a thank you and that's how they get to be friends (maybe more later? ;) imagine Duke trying to give Dwight the 'if you hurt my little sister I'll hurt you' speech, lol)

**

At some point they will meet a wizard and Nathan will be like ‘omfg, a wizard, I’m so done’.  Then he’ll get scolded because as it turns out 'wizard' is actually an outdated and offensive term, and they prefer 'magic user'.  And then he'll get scolded for his bias against magic users, and lectured on why his bias is irrational.  The wizard in question, old Almivaros, loves to lecture and show off his knowledge, so Nathan will learn more than he ever wants to know about how magic works.  (Perhaps Almivaros has donned traditional wizard outfit for the meeting because he loves theatricality?  And maybe a bit to freak out Nathan too.)

\- this was going to be my (long) running joke, a reference in each of the three fics about how Nathan is just refusing to accept the existence of wizards : )

**

Duke teaching turned!Nathan at some pointing about how to werewolves, biting is like pointing a gun - you don't do it until your intent is to kill, that’s why his mouth is always closed in play or even in a fight unless it’s bad enough that he’s prepared to kill. (says how desperate he was to keep Wade from escaping, that he’d break that taboo)

[ http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/155776777904/theunvanquishedzims-werewolves-are-stereotyped ](http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/155776777904/theunvanquishedzims-werewolves-are-stereotyped) This is absolutely part of my headcanons for this verse.  Duke's first transformation we saw, when Nathan and Audrey called him back, was an exception to the ravenous werewolf thing because being feral is so traumatic for him that he just wanted to curl up somewhere safe and comforting.  He'd have been starving in the morning if they hadn't coaxed him into eating something.  Also I wonder if he's just been through so many transformation where he didn't have access to enough food - because that seems like something Simon and the other abusive alphas would have done, not to mention the times when Duke was wandering the world poor as dirt - that he's just *used* to it ;__;  In a family where money was tight, like Duke's, I can see him growing up never really having enough.  Like, not starving, but always underfed.  And when his abusers realize that it's such an easy way to control him, to punish and reward his behaviors.  And then when Nathan is turned he's ravenously hungry and Duke's like 'oh yeah, so that's a thing' and Audrey's like 'wtf you never eat like that, you mean you've been starving every time you change and never said anything?!' and Duke's like 'uh oh'.  (note:  consider what this means for his love of feeding people) Thereafter they were always get ludicrous amounts of takeouts for full moon nights, and Duke will be asked to think about his physical state and honestly assess whether he's still hungry before he leaves the table.  And he fights down the instinct to protest that he's fine, that he doesn't need all this, that he's being too greedy, because he sees the worry in their faces, and it might be hard to do things for his own sake but it's never been hard doing it for them.  Besides, once Nathan is turned Duke will have to be honest about his needs because Nathan is taking his cues from him.  If Duke doesn't eat enough then Nathan will think that's normal and follow suit, and suffer for it, and Duke can't have that.  In fact that will help Duke in many other ways as well, he will have to learn healthier ways of being a werewolf so he can be a good role model.

**

Once they’re all turned, their heats sync up, so for one day each month their poor bed gets basically destroyed.  They probably get to the point where they buy a whole new mattress every month just before their heat and put fresh sheets on it and lean it up against the wall and strip the old mattress, so that they can ruin the old mattress carefree and then just pull the new one down and have a nice fresh bed. 

Nathan doesn't know what his first heat is.  He's at the station doing paperwork and finds himself a little distracted, a little horny, having increasing trouble focusing on his work.  Luckily by this point Duke recognizes the early signs and calls Nathan to tell him to report sick and get his butt home.  Duke waits a little longer to call Audrey - none of them know how intense Nathan's first heat will be, and none of them want to risk Nathan being too rough or insistent with Audrey.  But they've caught it early enough that he's okay, so after he works out the first round with Duke, Duke calls Audrey and she comes over and her boys are very happy because they enjoyed having fun together but it's not the same without her.  Nathan in heat will lose all reserve and restraint and be loud and shameless and openly passionate.  Duke and Audrey will be delighted by this, like 'wow, did Christmas come early?’ levels of glee.  For those heats before Audrey gets turned too, she'll be glad the boys can take care of each other when she needs a break.  They would be very hard to keep up with!  (but what a show)

Audrey is between cases when her first one comes along, and she knows what it means thanks to her boys, so she texts them to get their asses home so she can ride them into the ground : )

**

one day there's a pair of infant twins left on the doorstep of the agency with a note 'I didn't know their father wasn't human.  I'm sorry but I can't keep them.  Please find a good home for them' and of course Nathan melts into a big pile of mush and Audrey knows in a heartbeat that they’ve almost certainly already found their home (barring objection from Duke or herself, which would be about the only reason Nathan would agree to give them up).  It would be especially cute if the babies were fussy at night and the only way they will quiet down and sleep is by using wolf!Duke as a mattress.  Which will be funny because as a human Duke is nervous about even holding the babies, he's so scared he'll screw it up somehow, but he'll become a wolf and lie quietly for hours while they nap on him.  Can you imagine how they found out that the babies like to sleep on him?  Like imagine 4 AM and all three of them are beyond exhausted and stressed because the babies have been wailing for hours, even Nathan's not smiling over them anymore, Audrey's trying actively not to snap, they've tried everything that any of them can think of then then Duke's like 'look, just let me try something.'  And there's a big wolf in the room and the babies stop crying and stare, and Duke lies down in the middle of their bed and Nathan gently puts the kids on him and they giggle and pet his fur and snuggle up and are soon soundly sleeping.  And Duke is quietly happy because maybe he doesn’t know the first thing about kids and maybe he's terrified that he'll do everything wrong, but here at least is one thing he can do right for them. 

Duke giving the tiny babies nuzzles so they can learn each other's scent from the very beginning.  He doens't even know this is a thing werewolves do, but his instincts are good.  Baby's first full moon, this tiny little wolf pup toddling around, anxiously followed by a massive terrifying wolf fretting endlessly over all possible causes of harm (or two or three such wolves).  The first tiny little howl and how Duke's heart will burst with joy and pride and the absolute determination (all over again) that his child will never ever suffer for being a wolf, will never know anything but the love and comfort and support of a healthy happy pack.

Can you imagine the first time the babies change and Audrey and Nathan are like 'ack, what now!' but Duke just changes too and cuddles and plays with them and they are so happy!  Running around and play bowing and playing tag, gently nudging them with his nose as they toddle excitedly in his wake, letting them pounce on his tail and bite it with their little toothless mouths, growling tiny high-pitched growls, such baby fierceness.  And when they are all tired out he will flop down and let them cuddle up to his soft fluffy belly, curling around them protectively.  Audrey and Nathan take lots of pictures and videos all through (babies' first change!) and once their precious puppies are flopped the two of them will join the snugglepile.  And you know, I think it will be very healthy for Duke every time the family gets excited about like 'babies' first change’, ‘babies' first full moon as wolves', etc, because it normalizes - celebrates, even - being a werewolf.  And although by that point Duke will be much more at peace with himself, reinforcing the positive aspects of lycanthropy will always be a good thing for him.  Imagine once the cubs are old enough to get *excited* about full moons, like ‘yay we get to go out to the island and run and play all night and then have a big delicious meal and all fall asleep in a pile!’ that will be such a huge change in mindset.

Duke loves kids but he's scared to have his own - like a lot of survivors of child abuse, he's terrified of potentially perpetuating the cycle.  He would need copious reassurance from both of them that he would *never* do that, and even if he did (which would never ever EVER) happen, they wouldn't let him say or do a single thing that would hurt the kids.  (which I think honestly would reassure him more than them pointing out he would never do anything like that, because he trust them to protect the kid, even for him, more than he trusts himself not to do any harm ;_;)  Even then, his insecurity would be too hard for him to overcome if he were going to father his own children - but a pair of abandoned werewolf cubs is a pretty good motivation.

Audrey is...not a maternal person.  I doubt she ever really much wanted kids, and would only come around to the idea because she knows she has Nathan and Duke to support her in the venture.  She has no idea what to do with babies, but she (and Duke) would have to fight Nathan for time with them, so she is happy to let Nathan be the primary parent at first.  So Nathan's gonna be the caretaker parent, Duke's gonna be the fun cool parent, and Audrey's going to be the disciplinarian but also the first to destroy anyone who so much as looks at her kids sideways (I mean, they all will be ferociously protective, but god help you with Audrey in particular).  The babies might be when Nathan resigns as chief of police and lets Dwight take over, and is a stay-at-home dad aside from his work for the agency.  Duke is good when the kids are toddlers, playing pretend and never talking down to them - no matter how surreal the conversation, he'd treat it with perfect respect.  (possibly once they’ve started a family and Audrey is turned, she’d be willing to consider carrying their kids - I am amused by the mental image of Audrey, 9 months pregnant and grumbly about the assorted things it's doing to her body, with the boys absolutely worshipping her and waiting on her hand and foot.  And god help anyone who underestimates her just because she's pregnant!)  And maybe her mother never did come and adopt all the orphans, but maybe there's something healing in being able to do it for other abandoned children.

Can you imagine the first time the kids figure out that when Mom says no, it's time to ask Dad or Pop?  Especially if whichever they ask doesn't know the whole story and thus doesn't see any particular reason to say no.  Audrey will Not be pleased.  There will be A Talk. 

The three of them are going to *wreck* gender barriers.  Crying, cuddles, clothes, toys, ambitions, you name it.  (And god help the first teacher who tries to tell little Jean 'he's only mean because he *likes* you’, ugh).

The first Father's day the twins are old enough to tell him what a wonderful father he is – he gets this goofy handmade card with awkward childish writing listing all the reasons why Duke is a perfect daddy, ranging from silly kid things like the way he makes smiley-face pancakes to surprisingly insightful stuff like how he always makes them feel safe.  And he'd be trying so hard not to break down crying because they'd be upset and he barely manages to hold it together long enough to make some excuse and disappear for a bit so he can go sob his heart out.  And Audrey finds him and cuddles him and tells him that the card was the kids' own idea, they came up with that all on their own to list all the ways he's a wonderful dad, and he'll cry all the harder.  And when he's composed himself enough to keep it together he'll go back out and hug them *so much* and tell them all the ways they're his wonderful kids. 

Few things will make Duke happier than seeing the kids running around laughing and playing and being *fearless*, being happy and unafraid and confident because it would never even occur to them doubt that they are safe and loved and will always be provided for.  Knowing that they will never, never, ever have to survive what he did.

Once they adopt kids they’ll need someone to babysit once a month whole they’re all busy with their heat.  Maybe Dwight lets the pups have a monthly sleepover with whatever supernatural baby he ends up adopting - a little troll baby who's big and rugged like his adoptive daddy?  Or the opposite, a lovely and delicate little fae girl who looks ridiculously tiny next to her papa.  Or both!  (How cute would it be to have a big sister troll and a baby sister fae?  And all the other kids are like 'never ever be mean to so-and-so because her big sister's a troll and will beat you up' but actually they have it totally backwards, the troll girl is a complete marshmallow who just loves everyone and everything and wants to spend all her time petting unicorns and puppies and dressing up all pretty, and the fae girl is a tiny but ferocious tomboy spitfire who will END anyone who so much as looks funny at her gentle big sis?  And Dwight is just like 'how did this even happen?' and then shrug and send his fae daughter to Audrey for optimal training in how to be a Tiny Fierce.)

**

The Gulls and their adopted kids will always be the heart of their pack, but others will become adopted members in time as well.  Jennifer of course, but also Dwight and his kids, Gloria, Tracy, Stan - pack as extended family, basically.  The Gull’s kids think of them as such as use family terms such as Uncle Dwight, Grandma Gloria, etc. 

[ http://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/148804289781/the-ideal-werewolf-novel ](http://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/148804289781/the-ideal-werewolf-novel) and like that whole idea of the extended pack/family with adopting anyone who's abandoned/alone/rejected/in need of help no matter their age or species or needs, big family dinners and full moon family bonding time, a pack that's only partly bio-family - heck, only partly wolf - just being there for and supporting one another, that is absolutely where the threegulls will end up.

 

Because all three of them would really want that.  Duke who has spent his whole life having to hid a heart so big that it has love for everyone, Audrey who has never forgotten her childhood dream of seeing every lonely child adopted, and Nathan who was too weighed down by bonds of duty and propriety to ever have time for the family he wanted.

 

I imagine the pack as kind of a tiered thing - in a sense the entire supernatural community of Haven will be distant pack, the threegulls care about all of them and feel responsible for their safety.  And then there are people like the staff of the Gull or Haven PD, who are like extended pack.  Not quite close enough to meet the werewolf need for proper pack, but Duke would absolutely protect and take care of them.

**

I’m just realizing it never even occurred to me to have the Teagues (or the Rev) in this verse at all, as major as they are in canon.  That probably says something about how I feel about those characters, LOL

If I were going to add the Rev, I would make him a demon.  A fallen angel, taking out his bitterness and anger at the God who rejected him by warping His Word and His followers' faith into something dark and twisted and evil. 

**

It’s interesting to think about Haven going from an exclusively human small town to a mixed human and supernatural community.  One has to wonder what the human residents think of the sudden population explosion - maybe one of the Gulls starts a rumor that they were mentioned in some ‘good living’ magazine article about great places to live, written by someone who’d been a summer tourist there.  Probably a lot of them will be happy to see business pick up.  I think a lot of integration will have occurred before ‘discovery day’ happens, because while some of the refugees - like the selkie family and many of the non ‘human-passing’ supernaturals - will not live directly within the town or interact with its residents, others like Vickie and her dad will.  So by the time the human residents of Haven realize that the supernatural is real, they will have come to know them as friends, neighbors, co-workers, customers.  This would still not prevent conflict, and in fact  **it could get quite ugly and dark** .  This could possibly be where the Rev comes in, fanning hatred and bigotry.  That could be the core of the major conflict in Starlight, with Simon coming back to go ‘look at humans, they’re awful, gotta wipe ‘em all out’, yadda yadda.  I *really* wish I had the ability to write it, because it would be fascinating, but as much as I would want to write the Gulls defusing that situation, bringing justice to Simon and the Rev, and fully integrating the community, that is WAY beyond my capability to handle.  I have no idea how you manage to change the mind of a fanatic, or cope with a small insular community suddenly facing up to the fact that they’ll either have to accept a ton of really Other outsiders or leave the place their family's lived for generations.

**

**Another really dark possibility:** Simon is working with Mara.  Maybe she’s been turned by this point - maybe she didn't know Duke wasn't human at the time and found out about the supernatural afterward, and decided that she wanted to be a werewolf, big and strong and murderous and alpha.  You could have a *super* unhealthy Simon/Mara pairing.  Neither’s willing to accept the other as alpha (Mara won’t stand for Simon’s abuse and Simon is a misogynist embodiment of toxic masculinity) but they’ll still have hatesex, Mara thinks she's using him and vice versa.  Throw the more submissive William into the mix and you end up with a dark, *dark* mirror of the Gulls. (thanks to[ queenbookwench](http://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbookwench/pseuds/queenbookwench) for the idea)

(Normally the appearance of either Simon or Mara, much less both of them together, would cause Duke to pull up the anchor and set sail for the other side of the world but Duke's got ties now, he's set down roots, Haven is his *home* his territory)

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

**super-dark angsty idea for this verse which I would never, ever write, since apparently my brain likes to come up with awful scenarios, included here for the angst-lovers among you - if that’s not you, skip this bit and go look at the links below**

If Audrey and Nathan were killed before Duke could turn them, Duke would not revert to being a feral lone wolf at the next full moon because at that point his pack bonds to them are still there even though they are not, anchoring him still to his humanity.  The second full moon after their death would turn him feral - except that he wouldn't make it until then.  When they died, he would lie down as a wolf across their graves and guard their rest, without food or water or sleep, until it killed him.  Someone in Haven (probably someone who survived because of Audrey and Nathan's sacrifice) will be so touched by Duke's devotion that they'd commission a statue, a stone wolf lying across the graves - but instead of it being a sad statue of him pining, they'll commission statues of Audrey and Duke sitting with him, their hands in his fur, so it looks like he's lying at their feet, loving and content.

….

And now I once again declare that this is NOT what happens, I will never write that, what actually happens is that Duke eventually turns them both and they travel the world bringing justice to supernaturals everywhere and are beloved by everyone in Haven and they have a huge healthy happy pack with lots of kids and grandkids (their or other people's, adopted or biological or both) running around as adorable wolf pups as often as human babies because from the day they are born they will know nothing but love and happiness and good strong healthy bonds.  And eventually when they are all ridiculously old and have seen and done every last thing that they ever wanted to do and are ready to move on, they will bid a loving farewell to their family and pack and friends and snuggle up together to pass on peacefully and painlessly in their sleep.

So there.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Links relevant to this verse (mostly adorable/awesome posts of wolves that could be the gulls)

[ http://defilerwyrm.tumblr.com/post/157807000345/wolveswolves-by-sjnate ](http://defilerwyrm.tumblr.com/post/157807000345/wolveswolves-by-sjnate) *exactly* how I picture wolf!Nathan (a 'did you just threaten my pack' moment)

[ https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/bb/8a/09/white-wolf-sanctuary.jpg ](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/bb/8a/09/white-wolf-sanctuary.jpg) exactly how I picture Audrey

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/153683844271/natureac-this-blog-will-make-you-feel-at ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/153683844271/natureac-this-blog-will-make-you-feel-at) Nathan and Duke

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/147590349496/wearevanity-untamable-yumearashi-i-feel ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/147590349496/wearevanity-untamable-yumearashi-i-feel) wolf!Wade

[ http://66.media.tumblr.com/7bd54692ee5fedef6d4168d12455abdb/tumblr_o90yf2Qofw1r3ftwpo8_250.gif ](http://66.media.tumblr.com/7bd54692ee5fedef6d4168d12455abdb/tumblr_o90yf2Qofw1r3ftwpo8_250.gif) wolf!Duke facing down Wade

[ http://serendipityxxi.tumblr.com/post/153055291674/weresehlat-grouch314-hot4triangle ](http://serendipityxxi.tumblr.com/post/153055291674/weresehlat-grouch314-hot4triangle) wolf!Duke says 'stop playing around and give me the snack, Nathan!’

[ https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2016-07/11/16/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web03/sub-buzz-11420-1468268570-1.jpg?resize=625:625&no-auto ](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2016-07/11/16/asset/buzzfeed-prod-web03/sub-buzz-11420-1468268570-1.jpg?resize=625:625&no-auto) happy wolf!Duke, probably about to do something mischievous

[ http://wolveswolves.tumblr.com/post/146602494850/worlds-laziest-wolf-tries-to-howl ](http://wolveswolves.tumblr.com/post/146602494850/worlds-laziest-wolf-tries-to-howl) Duke just wants to nap

[ http://dorianpink.tumblr.com/post/156019987953 ](http://dorianpink.tumblr.com/post/156019987953) Nathan being protective of Duke ^____^

[ http://natureac.tumblr.com/post/152065720408/this-blog-will-make-you-feel-at-peace ](http://natureac.tumblr.com/post/152065720408/this-blog-will-make-you-feel-at-peace) wolf!Duke is not buying this shit

[ http://themetapicture.com/a-wolf-and-her-pups/ ](http://themetapicture.com/a-wolf-and-her-pups/) Audrey and the twins

[ http://wolveswolves.tumblr.com/post/154558250882/hudson-bay-wolf-canis-lupus-hudsonicus ](http://wolveswolves.tumblr.com/post/154558250882/hudson-bay-wolf-canis-lupus-hudsonicus) wolf!Audrey in a playful mood

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPKq5cVN-Nc ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPKq5cVN-Nc) imagine Duke and Audrey : )

[ http://anoraborealis.tumblr.com/post/151268757443 ](http://anoraborealis.tumblr.com/post/151268757443) “Wolf!boys goofing off during a fall festival, they were very seriously presented pumpkins by tiny kidlets.  Audrey is delighted and taking photos, and the boys, of course, could not possibly offend said tiny kidlets by  _ not _ playing with the pumpkins.” - [ Jadzibelle](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzibelle/pseuds/Jadzibelle)

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/154438034361/caanubis-the-ground-is-so-soft ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/154438034361/caanubis-the-ground-is-so-soft) Duke with a case of spring fever

[ http://68.media.tumblr.com/d6e8ac553f00939b54ba00dd7ca08149/tumblr_inline_o6ksd3CadS1rxyp13_500.jpg ](http://68.media.tumblr.com/d6e8ac553f00939b54ba00dd7ca08149/tumblr_inline_o6ksd3CadS1rxyp13_500.jpg) when Duke thinks he's done something bad, or when he wants something from Audrey and/or Nathan

[ http://geekgirlsmash.tumblr.com/post/159528205243/wolveswolves-by-j-l-klein-and-m-l-hubert ](http://geekgirlsmash.tumblr.com/post/159528205243/wolveswolves-by-j-l-klein-and-m-l-hubert)   Audrey, that is not how you parent!

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNJW1rMiEU ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNJW1rMiEU) how Duke teaches Jean and James to howl?

[ http://technicolorrelays.tumblr.com/post/159489366962 ](http://technicolorrelays.tumblr.com/post/159489366962) magically de-aged Nathan and Duke - or the twins

[ http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/154269077313/how-to-ride-a-werewolf ](http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/154269077313/how-to-ride-a-werewolf) one of Duke's supernatural contacts sends him that in total innocence and Duke immediately shows it to Audrey and Nathan, snickering. 

[ http://technicolorrelays.tumblr.com/post/150021400410 ](http://technicolorrelays.tumblr.com/post/150021400410) Relevant to wolf!Duke

[ http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/151416844864/garbageshepard-feathersmoons-this-is ](http://kedreeva.tumblr.com/post/151416844864/garbageshepard-feathersmoons-this-is) When Duke got lonely in his travels, sometimes he would do this.

[ https://www.instagram.com/p/BISEvi-Bhdk/ ](https://www.instagram.com/p/BISEvi-Bhdk/) family photo?

[ http://68.media.tumblr.com/673cc03d463d7bf710a469a38e9b1c52/tumblr_oag8lvjgEf1qg51mgo5_1280.jpg ](http://68.media.tumblr.com/673cc03d463d7bf710a469a38e9b1c52/tumblr_oag8lvjgEf1qg51mgo5_1280.jpg) Duke makes a friend

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xEX-48RHCY ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xEX-48RHCY) imagine Nathan and Audrey working hard all day raking leaves in the park for some community cleanup project, and then Duke comes along and this happens.  Audrey and Nathan will try to be mad at the destruction of their work, but will fail.  Fail utterly, even to the point of diving into the leaf pile themselves to playfully wrestle with him.  Duke would love it.  They'd wrestle and chase each other and utterly annihilate the leaf pile and end up panting and happy and absolutely covered with leaves and damp and probably squished bugs and slugs (and probably a few minor scrapes and bruises where the leaf pile contained sticks and stones).  Audrey and Nathan will not really mind having to re-rake the leaves, it was worth every bit of it to see Duke so happy and carefree (and he will help, of course he will.  And afterwards back at home he will tend whatever tiny injuries they got, and run them a hot bath to clean up, and warm up soft fluffy towels and bathrobes to peak cuddliness, and provide mugs of spiced cider or hot cocoa.)

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/148791729716/furiroad-caddyl-how-do-werewolves-seduce ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/148791729716/furiroad-caddyl-how-do-werewolves-seduce) one of them absolutely tells the others this joke

[ https://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/wolf-boxer-briefs?utm_term=.mgEZALq0XZ#.dyLKwWN1PK ](https://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/wolf-boxer-briefs?utm_term=.mgEZALq0XZ#.dyLKwWN1PK) Audrey is totally getting these for Duke

[ https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8965221120/h02CE4D08/ ](https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8965221120/h02CE4D08/) wolf!Duke wants a snack

[ http://9gag.com/gag/axZ5PrY/all-dogs-love-butt-scratches-all-cats-love-boxes ](http://9gag.com/gag/axZ5PrY/all-dogs-love-butt-scratches-all-cats-love-boxes) Nathan and Audrey are totally gonna find something like that, some spot to scritch that will just make Duke roll over and kick his back leg like an overgrown puppy.  When Nathan is turned, Duke will totally do it to him, too.  And film it.  When Audrey eventually decides to becomes a werewolf, they will not do it to her, however.  Audrey is not so undignified.  She is Alpha.  But she will sit between them and give them scritchies and smile as they loll about happily, seeing her pack happy and well is an alpha's greatest joy.

[ http://gingersnapwolves.tumblr.com/post/147162138339/chocoholicannanymous-rubylis-dogmatix ](http://gingersnapwolves.tumblr.com/post/147162138339/chocoholicannanymous-rubylis-dogmatix) Duke has a strong strain of New World lycanthropy in him.

[ http://cheezburger.com/982280/gif-scrappy-kitten-bravely-fights-a-dogs-tail ](http://cheezburger.com/982280/gif-scrappy-kitten-bravely-fights-a-dogs-tail) That is *absolutely* going to have to happen with Duke at some point.  Not sure if it will be a normal kitten or some sort of supernatural feline, but it needs to happen.  Duke will be looking back over his shoulder watching with delight, grinning his wolfy grin. 

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/146633162066/yumearashi-wolfduke-wolfnathan-being-cute ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/146633162066/yumearashi-wolfduke-wolfnathan-being-cute) the boys being cute

[ http://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/146472046481/how-do-wolves-move ](http://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/146472046481/how-do-wolves-move) The gulls getting used to their wolf forms

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/158718436331/johnandwolf-as-graceful-as-they-come-grizzly ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/158718436331/johnandwolf-as-graceful-as-they-come-grizzly) Audrey oops!

[ https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/158612500296/wolveswolves-wolf-with-a-huge-chum-salmon-that ](https://queenbookwench.tumblr.com/post/158612500296/wolveswolves-wolf-with-a-huge-chum-salmon-that) Duke is a good provider!

[ http://themetapicture.com/cant-move-till-little-human-wakes-up/ ](http://themetapicture.com/cant-move-till-little-human-wakes-up/) Audrey once Nathan is a werewolf too

[ http://cheezburger.com/351240/gif-wolf-plays-with-stick ](http://cheezburger.com/351240/gif-wolf-plays-with-stick) Audrey having fun

**

once this fic is finished I should open up the universe to anyone who wants to play in it : )


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